Services drive growth in Dutch export jobs, CBS says

Services have become a bigger source of jobs and domestic value from the Netherlands’ exports, even as the overall contribution of exports to the economy has remained broadly stable since 2015, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) says.

Exports of goods and services supported the equivalent of 2.6 million full-time jobs in 2025, up by 760,000 from 2010. More than three-quarters of that increase came from services exports. Jobs linked to services exports rose from about 698,000 to 1.28 million, while employment linked to domestically made goods and re-exports changed much less.

Export-related work accounted for 31% of total employment in 2025, compared with 26% in 2010. Services now account for about half of the employment linked to exports, CBS says.

The shift is also visible in the value exports add to the Dutch economy. In 2025, services exports generated 64 cents of Dutch value added per euro of export value, compared with 53 cents for goods made in the Netherlands and 13 cents for re-exports. The figures describe domestic value added, not the full sale value of exports.

Yet total export earnings remained around 34% to 35% of gross domestic product after 2015, reaching 34.1% in 2025. Within that stable overall share, the contribution from goods exports declined while that from services exports increased.

Services also support exports by other sectors. In 2024, more than a quarter of the value added from business-services exports came from enabling exports in other industries, including through legal, management, IT and financial services, and intellectual-property management.