Rapid job creation across the field at Amsterdam startups

Published on 8 September 2022 at 13:03

According to the newest edition of the Startup Jobs report, tech companies bring 78,000 jobs to the city and are hiring people with a large variety of skill sets.

Amsterdam is hiring

The report, created in partnership with StartupAmsterdam and now in its fourth edition, surveys the labour market in the Amsterdam Area’s buzzing tech and startup scene. The report’s 2021 edition states that despite all the turmoil that the year 2020 brought with it, the number of people employed in Amsterdam’s startup sector has continued to grow. According to the report, tech companies account for 78,000 jobs in the city. And jobs at startups have been growing faster than in any individual sector.

More than coders

Significantly, there is demand for a large variety of qualifications. While software developers are always wanted, Amsterdam startups are in need of talent in all areas of business, from operations and sales to marketing and HR.

Internationals and locals

Within the city’s tech ecosystem, Amsterdam-founded tech companies account for 44,000 jobs, while foreign businesses established in the region – including giants such as Netflix, Tesla and Amazon – add another 34,000 jobs. Startup job growth is disproportionately driven by younger companies: companies that were founded less than five years ago account for half of all local jobs created since January 2020. However, companies founded before 2010 still account for a slight majority (52%) of tech jobs in Amsterdam.

Contrast across sectors

One distinguishing feature of 2020 and 2021 is that there has been a stark contrast of successes between different sectors as the coronavirus pandemic has had a varying impact. While businesses in the travel, events, marketing and HR sectors faced major challenges, industries such as foodtech and healthtech – areas where digital product adoption was accelerated by the pandemic – stand out as the fastest growing startup sectors for employment, resulting in a 20% year-on-year job growth. Job creation is also accelerating at impact-focussed startups, which now account for 8.6% of startup jobs in Amsterdam, up from 4.6% in 2018.

Overall, startup jobs have shown a 6.6% increase in 2020 and 2021, demonstrating, as the report states, that “startups are a resilient job creation engine, even in the most challenging of conditions.”