Over the past decades, the number of 15- to 75-year-olds with a main job as self-employed without personnel (zzp) steadily increased, to almost 1.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. In ten years, 370 thousand zzp offering their own labor were added. The number of zzp selling products – such as bakers and butchers – is smaller and changes less.
In the first quarter of 2025, 59 thousand zzp switched to a main job as an employee, almost twice as many as a year earlier. Most had a flexible employment relationship (47 thousand), the others a permanent one (12 thousand). In the same quarter a year earlier, these numbers were lower (26 thousand and 6 thousand). In the second quarter, significantly more zzp became employees than in 2024. In the first half of 2025, there were also somewhat more zzp who completely stopped working (unemployed or no longer looking for and/or available for work). In the second half of 2025, the number of zzp who became employees decreased again and was almost the same as a year earlier.
In the third quarter of 2025, 22 thousand people became zzp who were not part of the labor force a quarter earlier. This includes re-entrants or school leavers who become zzp. This number was much higher a year earlier with 32 thousand. Also in the fourth quarter, this number was higher in 2024 than in 2025. Additionally, in 2025 fewer employees with a flexible employment relationship switched to zzp. In the fourth quarter, this difference between 2024 and 2025 was the greatest, respectively 22 thousand and 9 thousand.
Among zzp who had worked 1 to 5 years, the number switching to employee or not working increased the most. In 2024, 6 percent still switched, in 2025 this was 9 percent. Most completely stop as zzp, and some work fewer hours as zzp so it is no longer their main job. Zzp who worked 0 to 1 year in their job most often switched to another position (13 percent in 2025) but that differs little from 2024. The decline in the number of zzp was also strongest among young people.
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