New companies in Lithuania create 25,000 jobs annually

According to Jurgita Dambrauskaitė, business analyst at Creditreform Lietuva – a company which specialises in gathering contact and economic information about new businesses – more and more new businesses are setting up in Lithuania each year. “Every year, up to 10,000 different companies come into existence in Lithuania. Lately, the number of new companies has been increasing,” she said.

Dambrauskaitė also pointed out that many newly established firms grow into substantial companies employing hundreds of staff. The most noticeable changes are seen in microcompanies. In their second year, microcompanies tend to either move up into the group of small companies with 10-49 employees or move the other way, having no personnel at all.

Interestingly enough, companies that were established in 2010 showed the most sustainable continued growth. The proportion of microcompanies somewhat decreased after the first year to 65.3 percent of the total. However, the percentage of small companies’ grew to 5.9 percent. Moreover, the percentage of medium companies – with 50-249 employees – and large companies – with over 250 employees – both grew, rising to 0.53 percent and 0.13 percent of the total respectively.

The largest second year growth in personnel was again seen in companies established in 2010. Here, the number of businesses employing from 10 to 49 members of staff increased to 7.2 percent, whilst those with between 50 and 249 grew to 0.6 percent, and those with more than 250 employees reached 0.16 percent, Invest Lithuania said.