Europe’s private equity-backed firms have created jobs five times faster than the European average, a study shows.
Thanks to private equity, 10.5 million people were in employment during 2018, according to the best-available figures from Invest Europe, a trade body.
The jobs were distributed across just over 22,650 European businesses backed by private equity investment, equal to 4.5% of the continent’s active workforce and more than the population of Greece.
All stages of private equity created jobs at a higher rate than the European average, ranging from 5% for buyouts to 16% growth for venture capital. Figures show that 173,124 net jobs were created by private equity-backed firms in 2018.
Eric de Montgolfier, CEO of Invest Europe, said the numbers showed “just how deeply ingrained” private equity is in the economic and social fabric of Europe.
He added: “In these challenging times, private equity backed companies are not immune from the unprecedented impact of Covid-19 on the economy. However, the industry’s focus on building better businesses, supporting investors and fuelling innovation, in turn driving growth and job creation, means that private equity has a critical role to play in Europe’s economic recovery.”
Further figures showed that nearly 3.4 million people worked for companies in the business products and services sector across Europe. Biotech and healthcare were among the best performing industries for job creation, increasing employment by 9% in 2018.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) employing fewer than 250 staff were called the “backbone of the European economy” and about 14,500 of them backed by private equity employed almost 900,000 people across Europe at the end of 2018.
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