* Albania, Bosnia - Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia
**Cyprus, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Malta, San Marino, Vatican City
European job creation 2023-24
* Albania, Bosnia - Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia
**Cyprus, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Malta, San Marino, Vatican City
How does private equity support jobs across regional areas?
Wherever companies have potential, private equity can help supercharge their growth. As our research shows, private equity fuels expansion and employment in large, developed metropolitan areas, and in emerging cities and regions alike.
Employment
France & Benelux was the largest region for private equity-backed jobs. With 4.1 million people employed, the region accounts for about 36% of all private equity-backed jobs in European companies. The Île-de-France region accounts for just over 1.5 million private equity-backed jobs, making it the largest region in terms of private equity-backed company employment. With 2.5 million people employed by private equity-backed companies, the UK & Ireland was the second most important region. The region accounts for 22% of private equity-backed European company jobs. The DACH region follows with 1.9 million jobs, representing 17% of the total.
Top regional employment 2024
By region and sub-region
Job creation
Private equity supports job creation in all areas of Europe. This analysis identifies Europe’s job creation hotspots, where private equity-backed companies achieved the most growth.
By location of portfolio companies, the CEE region was the one with the highest growth rate: 5.6% in 2024. This was closely followed by Southern Europe, with 5.5%.
France & Benelux saw the highest net job creation in terms of totals, with almost 118,500 jobs created in 2024. This analysis reveals that private equity support is continuing to drive job creation growth at businesses across Europe, with some regions seeing significant levels of employment increases during the year.
See Multi-year trend section for more context on job growth over longer periods of time per region
+4%
private equity job creation for all regions in 2024
vs.
+1%
overall European market’s growth in 2024 Source: Eurostat / UK ONS
Note: Analysis excludes those sub-regions with less than 10 companies and less than 100 employees in 2024.
Top regional job creation 2023-24
By region and sub-region
Employment & job creation – cross border
By investment firm and portfolio company geography
In the graphic below, we proportionally display cross border employment by location of private equity firms and portfolio companies. This demonstrates the jobs backed by private equity in a specific region, domestically and abroad.
