Self-employed contractors in construction and the crackdown on false self-employment

On 16 October 2025, in Trends op de bouwarbeidsmarkt 2025-2029, the Economisch Instituut voor de Bouw (EIB), the Dutch economic research institute for construction, wrote that employment in construction grew in 2025 for the twelfth year in a row, by 1 per cent. Within that, the number of self-employed fell by an estimated 4,000 labour years, while the number of employees rose by 2 per cent and the number of agency workers by 4 per cent. Over the past decade the number of self-employed grew almost every year, with 2020 the only exception. The EIB attributes the turnaround to the announced enforcement of the Wet DBA, the Dutch law on assessing employment relationships, by the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration, which led some self-employed contractors to take jobs with former clients. At the same time labour shortages worsened, reaching 80 vacancies per thousand workers in the second quarter of 2025. The EIB expects around 75,000 new full-time workers to be needed between 2026 and 2029, and the number of self-employed to grow much more slowly than before the end of the enforcement moratorium.

Statistics Netherlands (CBS) sees the same across the economy. On 12 February 2026 it reported that the number of self-employed workers fell by 62,000 in 2025, the first fall in years. In the first quarter of 2025, 59,000 self-employed workers moved to a main job as an employee, almost twice as many as a year earlier, most of them on a flexible contract. In the second half of the year, the main change was that fewer people started out as self-employed.

What this changes inside construction firms is set out in the EIB report Schijnzelfstandigheid in de bouw en infra (False self-employment in construction and infrastructure) of March 2026, produced at the request of the sector’s joint employer and union bodies. The EIB surveyed self-employed workers and employers and spoke with large and medium-sized construction and infrastructure firms, intermediaries, construction staffing agencies and the Tax and Customs Administration; the report does not give the sample size. According to CBS figures, the number of working self-employed in construction and their hours worked fell by 4.5 per cent in 2025. Over 40 per cent of firms hired fewer self-employed contractors than a year earlier, and for 60 per cent of them possible enforcement was the main reason. Small firms in particular say they cannot bear the risk of a back-tax assessment. Of the firms hiring fewer, 35 per cent took on more employees and about 15 per cent more agency workers. Nearly 30 per cent of them report stalled work in progress or lower turnover, especially smaller firms that could not absorb the loss of their contractors. Half of the firms changed the way they hire: stipulating that the contractor must deliver a result, paying closer attention to a market rate, no more company workwear, and no longer inviting contractors to the staff outing as a matter of course. The self-employed themselves largely want to stay that way. Fewer than 5 per cent say they did not choose to become self-employed, and over three quarters expect to still be self-employed next year. The EIB sees the greatest risk of false self-employment among contractors who work mainly for main contractors.

The Monitor bouwketen of June 2026, which the EIB produces with the industry bodies for architects, builders, engineers and installation firms, shows that the shift is continuing. In the first quarter of 2026 the number of employees in construction rose by 4,000 and the number of self-employed fell by 3,000, a decline that began in the last quarter of 2024. Across the construction supply chain, markedly fewer companies are being set up and more are being wound up than in earlier years, which the monitor links to the stricter enforcement.

How solid is this? CBS measures the break in the trend in self-employment across the whole economy, the construction figures now span five quarters, and the EIB’s own surveys show firms adjusting their hiring and contracts. How the new balance between a permanent core and a flexible workforce plays out for output, and what the announced new legislation for the self-employed will change, has not yet been measured. Within construction, the picture also comes largely from a single institute. So the picture is not yet settled.