Private Equity at Work 2025 (Invest Europe)

Summary

• Private equity-backed European companies employed 11.2 million people in 2023, representing 5% of Europe's total 240 million workforce.p.4
• Private equity and venture capital-backed portfolio companies generated 339,149 net new jobs in 2023, achieving a 5% employment growth rate compared to 1% across the overall European market.p.4
• A total of 28,610 European companies were backed by private equity in 2023, of which 21,536 were SMEs employing 1,042,013 people.p.6
• Energy & Environment was the fastest-growing sector for job creation in 2023 with a 9.5% growth rate (+21,397 jobs), while Consumer Goods & Services created the most net jobs in absolute terms (+86,872).p.21

Key insights

1. Private equity-backed companies outperformed the general European economy in 2023 with a net employment growth of 5% versus 1% for the overall European market.p.15
2. Buyout firms supported 5.7 million jobs across 4,536 companies in Europe, representing around half of all employment supported by the industry in 2023.p.13
3. Venture capital firms backed 13,524 companies (around 47% of all PE-backed companies) and supported 988,483 jobs in 2023.p.13
4. Private equity-backed SMEs added 37,824 net new jobs in 2023, reflecting a 6.4% employment increase.p.36
5. Over the multi-year period from 2017 to 2023, studied portfolio companies generated 453,594 net jobs with an average annual growth rate of 3.9%.p.39
6. Holding period analysis reveals that average year-on-year job creation increases by 35% in the first year of ownership before moderating to 22% in year two, 18% in year three, and 14% in year four.p.46
7. Outside Europe, 38% of the total capital raised by private equity in Europe between 2019 and 2023 originated from non-European investors.p.56