Fewer freelancers in home nursing, childcare

The number of self-employed workers in home care, childcare, and hospitals has been steadily decreasing recently, according to new figures from the Dutch Chamber of Commerce (KVK). The decline is linked to stricter enforcement of rules against false self-employment since the beginning of this year. For example, the Childcare Industry Association advised against continuing to work with self-employed workers.

In home care, a net total of over 2,500 self-employed workers disappeared in the last three quarters. This is equal to a reduction of 8 percent. A total of 1,378 self-employed workers left the childcare sector (minus 10 percent). In the category that also includes nurses in hospitals, there was a net decrease of 2.9 percent in the number of self-employed workers.

More self-employed workers are leaving these sectors than new ones are joining. In home care, the number of new self-employed starters dropped by more than half from November last year through July this year compared to the same period a year earlier.

The same trend was seen in childcare. Regarding those leaving, the KVK observed the opposite: nearly twice as many self-employed workers stopped working in home care, and there were 77 more self-employed workers leaving childcare.

"The developments concerning self-employed workers are highly sector-specific," explained Joris Knoben, professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at Tilburg University. According to him, there are major concerns about false self-employment in home care and childcare, and clients are deciding not to work with self-employed workers anymore. In contrast, the number of self-employed workers is actually growing among dentists and psychologists.

The Dutch Tax Authority began fully enforcing the self-employment rules on January 1 but will not issue any fines this year.

The total number of self-employed workers across all sectors of the Dutch economy has increased very slightly in recent months, according to the KVK. This is a fairly consistent trend.

However, compared to the same month a year earlier, there is consistently a decrease in the number of new starters and an increase in the number of people stopping as self-employed workers.

Dutch staffing agencies benefited from the shifts in the healthcare sector in the second quarter, according to figures from the Association of Dutch Staffing Agencies (VvDN). In healthcare, staffing agencies saw a 12 percent increase in revenue, while nearly all other sectors experienced a decline.

The VvDN stated that as many organizations are now stopping the use of self-employed workers, staffing agencies can be a good alternative.