Private equity, venture capital-backed companies create 4% more European jobs in 2024; 4x Europe’s job-creation rate

• Portfolio companies employed 11.4m in 2024, or 5% of entire European workforce

Brussels, Belgium – 30 April 2026 11:00 AM CET - Invest Europe, the association representing Europe’s private equity, venture capital, infrastructure and listed private equity sectors, as well as their investors, today published the seventh edition of the Private Equity at Work report tracking employment and job creation across Europe. It shows that private equity and venture capital-backed companies created 4% more jobs in 2024, the seventh consecutive year of positive job creation and well in excess of all-European employment growth.

• Private equity and venture capital-backed companies created 295,312 net jobs in 2024, roughly equivalent to the working population of Riga, Latvia. All regions recorded net job creation well ahead of their regional totals, from 2.3% in the Nordics to 5.6% in Central and Eastern Europe. Many countries witnessed far higher job creation rates, including Belgium (+11.9%), Bulgaria (+11.6%), Poland (+11.1%), Austria (+10.7%), and Greece (9.7%).

• Private equity and venture capital-backed companies employed 11.4 million workers in Europe at the end of 2024, equating to 5% of the continent’s workforce of 244 million, and almost as much as the working populations of Finland and the Netherlands combined. A total of 3,046,588 were employed at businesses in France, 2,389,715 at companies in the UK, and 1,451,286 in Germany.

Invest Europe’s Private Equity at Work drills into employment and job creation across sectors, as well as by size of company, and investment stage. Key sectors including ICT, Energy & Environment and Financial & Insurance Activities all added new jobs ahead of the 4% industry average. The report also shows that venture-stage companies created 8.7% net new jobs in 2024, while growth-stage companies added 4% more jobs, and buyout-stage businesses hired 3.8% more workers.

Eric de Montgolfier, CEO of Invest Europe, commented:

“When we first published Private Equity at Work, our aim was to show that private equity and venture capital-backed companies create jobs, rather than destroy them. We have unambiguously proved our point. Today, what also emerges is how our industry supports people and communities, while developing skills for a more innovative, competitive and sustainable Europe.”

PE- and VC-backed companies yield a 35% job creation rate in their first year of ownership, challenging the common belief that firms typically reduce staff following investment. Instead, the early hiring wave reflects the employment growth needed to scale companies, fulfil new strategies, and increase operational capacity. Job creation decreases over the holding period yet remains positive and important, with a 10% job creation rate in the fifth year.

To download the full Private Equity at Work report, please click here.