Private Equity at Work report (2024)

Employment & job creation across Europe

Private equity and venture capital supports European employment and creates jobs year in, year out. Over longer time frames, that positive impact compounds, really moving the needle for companies and communities.

It is five years since Invest Europe’s first Private Equity at Work report, tracking the industry’s contribution to employment and job creation in Europe. That short period has been one of the most challenging in living memory, from the lockdowns of the pandemic and the human and economic cost of conflict in Ukraine, to intense supply chain disruption, rampant inflation, and rapidly increasing interest rates. This year’s report follows the performance of European private equity and venture capital in 2022 – a year when the mood shifted from the ebullience of the post-COVID recovery to concern about rising prices and economic  slowdown. And all against the background of the climate crisis.

Once again, the industry fuelled job growth far in excess of the European average. Private equity and venture capital added 451,511 new jobs in 2022 – more than the entire working population of Seville – a 7.2% increase compared with the 2% employment growth created across Europe. As a result, European private equity- and venture capital-backed companies employed 10.9 million people, representing 5% of the total workforce. That’s more than the population of the Czech Republic!

When we first published this report, our aim was to set the record straight and prove conclusively that European private equity and venture capital does not destroy jobs, but rather creates them. The data speaks for itself. More than that, it shows what private equity can do. Driving employment across countries and regions, fuelling innovation and the talent that supports it, and taking the lead in sectors that underpin a more sustainable and competitive Europe.