Invest Europe

Employment & job creation

By portfolio company sector

How does private equity support jobs across industry sectors?

When companies with growth potential need investment and expertise to enable them to expand or develop, private equity is almost always on hand. That’s why private equity is found investing in every major industry and business sector across Europe.

In addition to financial backing, private equity helps its portfolio companies to improve operations, upgrade their offer, boost sales and drive profits – all of which fuel company growth and job creation.

Our study shows that four industry sectors represent 80% of all private equity-backed employment in European companies.

Employment

Private equity-backed companies in the Business Products & Services sector employ more than 3.1 million people, which is 27% of total private equity-backed European company employment.

This is closely followed by private equity-backed Consumer Goods & Services companies, employing almost 3 million people (26%).

Following that are Information Communications Technology (ICT) which employs more than 1.6 million people or 14%, and Biotech & Healthcare which employs almost 1.4 million people or 12%.

Our research shows that companies backed by private equity in these four sectors employed more than 9.1 million people in 2024, across roughly 24,000 companies in Europe.

Top 3 sectors

European private equity-backed employment

Business Products & Services

27% of total

3,131,405 employees

4,707 companies

Consumer Goods & Services

26% of total

2,928,036 employees

5,257 companies

Information Communications Technology (ICT)

14% of total

1,656,759 employees

10,130 companies

Private equity-backed company employment 2024

By sector

SUCCESS STORY

Nu-Med Grupa

Nu-Med Grupa is a Polish chain of oncology clinics providing imaging diagnostics, radiotherapy and chemotherapy across four locations. Contracted with the National Health Fund, it treats thousands of patients annually and promotes cancer prevention through screening programmes, education and public awareness initiatives.

674

full-time employees

View more success stories

View Nu-Med Grupa success story

Job creation

This year saw positive job growth in all sectors, in a range of 0.7%-24.6%. Job growth in Real Estate was 24.6% between 2023-2024. It was driven by a single company with an exceptional increase, but even excluding this outlier, Real Estate employment growth remains the highest at 12%. The next closest sector to this were those in the Financial & Insurance Activities sector, which saw overall growth of 7.8%.

Following the trend of previous years, companies in the Energy & Environment sector are among the top 3 in terms of growth (6.2%). On the other hand, job growth rate for ICT and Biotech & Healthcare have been slightly decreasing since 2021: 5.3% and 3% respectively. In absolute terms, Business Products & Services, Consumer Goods & Services and ICT created the most jobs: +69,725, +68,548 and +53,031 jobs respectively.

Whatever the economic backdrop and whatever the sector, private equity’s focus remains the same – making stronger, more profitable and more successful businesses. And, as a result, those businesses invariably need more employees.

Across all sectors, private equity’s job creation rate of 4% stacks up very well against the +1% in the wider European market.

Source: EDC / Eurostat / UK ONS

In 2024 the 3 sectors that had the highest job growth rate were Real Estate (24.6%), Financial & Insurance Activities (7.8%), and Energy & Environment (6.2%). However, the 3 sectors that created the most jobs in absolute terms were Business Products & Services (69,725 jobs), Consumer Goods & Services (68,548 jobs) and ICT (53,031 jobs).

Note: In this analysis, we excluded sectors for which the number of portfolio companies was low (under 100 companies)

Top 3 sectors

European private equity-backed job creation (in terms of growth rate)

Real Estate

+24.6%

+8,668 new jobs

Financial & Insurance Activities

+7.8%

+20,665 new jobs

Energy & Environment

+6.2%

+20,967 new jobs

Note: The 24.6% job growth in Real Estate is driven by a single company with an exceptional increase. Excluding this outlier, Real Estate employment growth is 12%.

Private Equity at Work