In the first six months of this year, 76,000 companies closed, the highest number since 2007 – the year the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) began measuring. Self-employed people have stopped using it privately. The number of bankruptcies also increased slightly, but remained “historically low,” according to CBS.

past 2.5 years The number of bankruptcies was very low. An important reason for this was Corona’s support, which kept many companies going. For example, the companies collectively received more than 18 billion euros in tax deferrals. Expect Chamber of Commerce from last April The fact that the number of bankruptcies will increase significantly has not yet been realized.

“We’ve been looking at these numbers in awe for two years,” says Marjoline Garsma, an economist at CBS. “Bankruptcies remain low, but in the first half of the current year, many entrepreneurs thought: I’m going to pull the plug. You’ll almost forget, but at the beginning of this year there was still a shutdown, and in those months business support was also cancelled.”

Done Chamber of Commerce (KvK) Corona first summer in 2020 A call to business to stop in time. “Take a close look at the company’s continued existence before incurring debt,” the Chamber of Commerce said at the time.

“It seems that companies have responded to that,” says Jarsma. “We also expected the number of bankruptcies to increase, but that’s a fraction of the size of the closings. So companies haven’t allowed them to go bankrupt.”

About four of the five discontinued companies belong to an independent entrepreneur. “We always see a lot of dynamism among the self-employed,” says Jarsma. “Think of the coaches, physiotherapists, and estheticians, many of whom started but many of whom have stopped again.” Another possible explanation, according to the economist, is that due to shortages in the labor market, more people are ending their sole proprietorship to start working for an employer.

Online stores in particular have given up: nearly 7,000. But the Dutch Statistics Office has also seen many newbies and laggards there for some time. The number of closed restaurants has increased significantly. According to Jarsma, this is due to the shutdowns and the effort it takes to attract and retain employees.

By the way, still more companies are established than closed companies in the Netherlands. As a result, in 2012 – after the financial crisis – most companies still went out of business relatively: 5 percent. This year, 3.6 percent of all companies have retired.