Entrepreneurship has become fundamental to create new jobs and enhance labour market opportunities for the unemployed and other disadvantaged groups. The European Commission published a press release to show the importance of promoting self-employment.
In 2014 about 16 percent of all employed people in the European Union were self-employed. In addition, microenterprises and companies with 10 employees or less, provided almost one third of the jobs in the EU private sector. However, there is still a lot of work to do as less than one third of self-employed currently hire other employees.
The highest rate of self-employed who hired workers in 2014 corresponds to Hungary (49 percent), followed by Germany (45 percent), Austria (42 percent) and Denmark (42 percent). The lowest rate is found in Romania (6 percent).
The countries with the highest rate of self-employed women with employees are: Spain (31 percent) and Poland (30 percent). On the opposite side, Cyprus (13 percent) and Malta (15 percent) have the lowest rates.
The European Association of Perfume and Cosmetic Products (APCE) supports entrepreneurship in the perfume and cosmetic industry. Its members have created many jobs over the past few years through self-employment and it has become a great opportunity for many people who lost their jobs as salaried employees to work again.