Jobs created by new firms accounted for 3.4% of employment in 2015, an increase of 17% relative to the previous year. Job creation from new firms can differ up to 5 percentage points across regions in a country.
An essential contribution of new firms to economies is manifested through the number of jobs they create. New firms can affect employment in two ways. They provide jobs and thus directly contribute to regional employment. Additionally, new firms also have an effect on employment through indirect channels by influencing employment in firms that already exist.
In 2015, new firms (i.e. those firms created in the previous 12-month period) directly employed, on average, 3.4% of all employees in OECD regions. Employment creation by new firms increased by 17% compared to 2014. Regional differences in employment creation by new firms, measured by the range between the region with the highest and the lowest proportion of employees in new firms, were especially high in Southern Europe ( 1.31). In Italy, Spain, Poland, Portugal, and France (the countries with the highest regional discrepancies) the top-performing region benefitted from employment creation by new firms that was many times larger than in the bottom region. As a consequence, regional differences within countries can be significant. For instance, in Italy, job creation by new firms amounted to 1.4% of overall existing jobs in Pordenone compared to 6.6% in Isernia.
