CBS measures tens of thousands fewer self-employed people after enforcement of law

The number of people quitting their jobs increased the most among self-employed people with a technical profession, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported.

Enforcement of the law

The decline is related to the Tax and Customs Administration re-enforcing the law against bogus self-employment from 1 January. As a result, employers are using fewer self-employed people for work that should actually be done on a permanent basis.

Nearly 60 percent of the self-employed who no longer work most hours as self-employed persons have continued to work, mainly as flexible workers.

"In the past quarter, there were 47,000 employees with a flexible employment relationship who worked most of their hours as a self-employed person in the previous quarter. That is almost double compared to the same quarter a year earlier," according to Statistics Netherlands. They switched to a temporary employment contract, or started working as a temporary or on-call employee.

Permanent position

The number of self-employed people who switched to a permanent job also doubled. At 12,000, this was a lot less. The number of self-employed people who no longer had paid work from the fourth to the first quarter increased slightly, from 43,000 in 2024 to 48,000 in 2025. These are mainly people who are not looking for work and are not available, for example due to retirement.