With financial support from DG Employment, the Joint Research Centre (JRC) has carried out an innovative state-of-the-art empirical analysis of job creation in the EU at firm level.

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European policy-makers need a state-of-the-art investigation of job creation in Europe that identifies which firms hold job creation potentials and whether these firms encounter notable obstacles. While aggregate statistics of employment are available at country, sector, and firm-size level, little is known at the firm level. A project by JRC aims at filling the gap.

Using a large sample of firm-level data for 20 Member States, empirical analysis by JRC (with financial support from DG Employment) finds that the young-SME category is the largest contributor to net job creation.

The results provide empirical support to policies aimed at encouraging young firms and entrepreneurship in Europe.

The results also highlight that job creation of small firms may face obstacles in the scaling-up development phase, which deserves further policy attention.