Getting a grip on the zzp dossier: Facts and insights on independent professionals in 2023

There are 1.2 million self-employed people without personnel (zzp'ers) in the Netherlands. That means that one in eight people in paid employment is an independent professional - a significant group. The position of the self-employed in the labor market is still a point of discussion within the political debate. As early as 2021, it became apparent that debates about the future of the self-employed in the labor market were being conducted on the basis of incorrect data and misinterpretations. This year, the knowledge platform ZiPconomy, commissioned by HeadFirst Group and ONL for Entrepreneurs, has once again produced a report with the most important figures and developments about the self-employed population in the Netherlands.

Valuable insights

The valuable insights revealed in the previous report in 2021 were now in need of an update. The aim of this renewed edition of the report is unchanged: to map the diversity of the target group and to raise the zzp dossier (and with it the labor market debate) to a higher level. Misconceptions about the self-employed are a thing of the past after reading this report.

Some new insights from this report are the following:

• The vast majority of the self-employed provide services (own labor). The number of self-employed people selling products decreased. Over a tenth of the employed labor force is self-employed own labor. In 2013, the figure was 8.2%.
• More than half of the self-employed are men. The proportion of women is rising, but this is still nowhere near as evenly distributed as among employees. Almost half of the self-employed are between the ages of 35-55.
• Almost half of the self-employed have a college education or higher. Remarkably, female self-employed workers are more often higher educated than men.
• The largest category of self-employed workers is the group providing “specialized business services. Followed by care and welfare, construction and IT. Most of the self-employed who supply their own labor to organizations have four or more clients.
• The vast majority of self-employed workers (83%) are (very) satisfied with their work situation. Among employees, this percentage is 78%. Direction over the working day is most often mentioned as a motive for becoming self-employed in 2023.

This analysis is largely based on results from 2013 to 2023 from TNO's Self-Employed Labor Survey (ZEA) and Statistics Netherlands (CBS). The focus is on self-employment. Curious about all the insights? Download the report on the website of headfirst.group.