Most workers leaving self-employment find paid work within months
More than half of Dutch workers leaving self-employment find paid work within three months, De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) reported on October 15, 2026. By mid-2026, their number had fallen by around 131,000 from almost 1.3 million at end-2024.
New contracts and new sectors
Only 7 percent of former self-employed workers become unemployed, comparable to previous years.
Around one-third move into permanent jobs or positions offering the prospect of permanent contracts; a similarly large group takes flexible work.
Some start businesses employing staff.
Almost half of those finding new work enter another sector, particularly healthcare and social care, government and education, and retail, transport and hospitality.
Nearly 40 percent work in another occupational category three months later.
DNB finds that the decline has had little impact on unemployment, with departures mainly generating movement within the labor market.
Fewer people have entered self-employment since its end-2024 peak, while more have left.
Enforcement coincides with the decline
Self-employment fell for the first time in more than twenty years; it still accounted for around 12 percent of employed workers in mid-2026.
The decline coincides with the January 1, 2025 end of the enforcement moratorium on false self-employment.
The Tax and Customs Administration resumed actively checking employment classifications.
Movement between self-employment and employment is relatively high in healthcare, construction, facility services and business services.
DNB cannot establish whether stricter enforcement is the main cause: its data do not record reasons for leaving.
Mobility is not productivity
DNB links labor mobility to the economy's ability to adapt and reallocate workers.
Its analysis does not establish what happens to income, productivity or employment conditions after a transition.
Sector and occupation changes can also reflect classification differences rather than entirely new work.