The Zzp Decline Changes Who Is Available and What They Want

Former zzp workers widen the labour pool, but they do not arrive as ready-made replacements.

At 8.15 on Monday morning, a small transport employer interviews someone who recently stopped working as a self-employed professional. The candidate has experience, knows customers and can work without much explanation. Yet the vacancy offers fixed hours, direct supervision and a pay structure very different from sending an invoice.

Neither side is being difficult. They are simply discovering that moving from self-employment into paid work is not the same as continuing the old work under a new contract.

De Nederlandsche Bank reported on 15 October that the number of people whose main job was zzp work had fallen by around 131,000 from its peak at the end of 2024. More than half of those leaving self-employment found paid work within three months. Only 7 percent became unemployed.

I read this as movement, not as an easy answer to staff shortages.

Movement is not availability

Almost half of the former self-employed workers who found new work moved into another sector. Nearly 40 percent entered another occupational category. Some went into care and welfare, government, education, retail, transport or hospitality. Around one-third entered permanent work, or work offering a prospect of permanence. A similarly large group entered flexible employment.

That is a much richer picture than freelancers simply joining the payroll of their former clients. People are reconsidering not only their contract, but also their occupation, hours, income certainty and working life.

The wider labour market remains tight. CBS recorded 95 vacancies for every 100 unemployed people in the second quarter of 2026. Unemployment fell from 4.0 to 3.9 percent. A national decline in zzp work therefore does not mean that a suitable local candidate will appear for every open role.

For a small employer, availability still depends on skills, region, licences, travel, hours and pay. It also depends on whether the vacancy offers a credible reason to stay.

The question beneath the vacancy

This brings me to the question I would put on the management table: are we designing this role around the work and result we need, or postponing a staffing decision that will return through cash, people, compliance and customer service?

A former zzp worker may bring judgment and commercial awareness that a conventional applicant does not. That person may also resist unnecessary approval lines or a rigid roster. An employer accustomed to buying assignments may underestimate how much leadership, onboarding and clarity an employee expects.

The sensible conversation starts with the work. Which decisions belong to the worker? Which hours are genuinely necessary? What must be learned? Who supervises quality? What happens during sickness or holiday? If the role has been copied from an old contractor arrangement, the vacancy may preserve yesterday’s habit rather than solve tomorrow’s need.

This matters especially where workers cross sectors. Experience can travel, but qualifications and routines do not always travel with it. A capable candidate entering care, construction or transport may need certification, sector knowledge or closer supervision before becoming dependable capacity.

The invoice and payslip carry different pressures

Moving recurring work onto payroll can improve continuity and retain knowledge. It also changes the timing of cash. Wages, employer charges and regular payroll dates replace an invoice that may once have risen and fallen with assignments. Leave, sickness, pension obligations where applicable, training and replacement capacity also enter the calculation.

That does not make employment the expensive option by definition. A high contractor rate, repeated onboarding and uncertain availability also cost money. The useful comparison is not hourly invoice against gross wage. It is the full cost of dependable work, including management time, absence, turnover and the revenue lost when nobody is available.

The compliance side remains active. The Belastingdienst resumed normal enforcement of employment relationships on 1 January 2025. Where a relationship is found to be employment rather than genuine self-employment, payroll-tax corrections and additional assessments may follow. Pension or collective labour agreement consequences can also arise, depending on the circumstances.

Contract wording alone does not settle this. The actual work, supervision, personal performance, rate-setting, commercial risk and place inside the organisation must tell a coherent story. I see that as governance, not paperwork. Leadership decides how work is organised, even when administration records the consequences later.

A smaller weekly discipline

The proposed Zelfstandigenwet may eventually provide a different framework, but it is still a consultation proposal. Its intended commencement is January 2028. Today’s staffing choices still sit under the current legal assessment and enforcement environment.

A small company does not need a grand workforce programme. It needs an honest monthly view of open roles, contractor dependence, overtime, absence and labour cost against revenue. Recurring external assignments deserve a regular check against daily working practice. Vacancies deserve the same attention: hours, authority, training, pay and expected results should fit together.

Return to that Monday interview. The employer may find that the former freelancer is not right for the vacancy as written. The better conclusion may be that the vacancy itself is wrong. A redesigned role, clearer responsibility or stronger onboarding could make the match work without disguising employment as entrepreneurship or employment as mere flexibility.

The fall in zzp numbers creates opportunity, but not a supply of ready-made employees. People are moving because the market, enforcement climate and their own preferences are moving. Employers who understand that will recruit with more precision and price capacity more honestly. They may also build something more valuable than a filled shift: a working relationship that both sides have a reason to keep.

The data, sourcing, and analysis behind this article were conducted by Linda Pavan Geraedts. AI was not used to identify sources, build the factual basis, or produce the analytical judgment contained here. AI was used only as a drafting aid. The final English text was personally reviewed, edited, and approved by Linda Pavan Geraedts before publication.

References

• Veel oud-zelfstandigen gaan werken in andere sector, stelt DNB
• De Nederlandsche Bank - Former self-employed workers' destination after exit
• Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek - Latest observed fall in zzp work and employee labour-market mix
• Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek - Flexibility after the zzp decline
• Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek - Current labour-market pressure and hiring capacity
• UWV - Sector destinations and medium-term employment demand
• Belastingdienst - Enforcement exposure where zzp work resembles employment
• Rijksoverheid - Policy uncertainty and proposed future zzp framework