Recruitment services market in Europe: size, suppliers and public contracts
Market size and key facts
In 2025, public buyers in 30 European countries awarded 553 supply contracts for recruitment services through award notices on TED; the 458 of them that state a value (82.8%) add up to €210 million.
- Since November 2023, 471 companies have won 1,355 public supply contracts for recruitment services in 30 European countries, in 414 award notices from 146 public buyers.
- 1.5% of these awards went to a company registered in a different country from the buyer; the most frequent foreign origin is Germany.
- The five companies that win most often hold 12.8% of all awards across Europe.
- 54.5% of the awards whose notice states the number of tenders received a single bid.
In proportion
All public purchasing in the EU-27 — general government spending on goods, services and investment, the measure the OECD and the European Commission use for public procurement — came to €2.93 trillion in 2025, 15.5% of GDP (Eurostat). Award notices on TED cover only the contracts above the EU thresholds, so they show who wins, not the whole of that spending.
Source: Eurostat, government finance statistics (gov_10a_main, gov_10a_exp) and GDP (nama_10_gdp), retrieved 9 November 2026.
Updated · counted daily from contract award notices on TED and Eurostat international trade data · figures as JSON · free to quote with attribution (CC BY 4.0)
How to cite: Cresques, "Recruitment services market in Europe", https://cresques.com/markets/europe/796-recruitment-services, from TED contract award notices (© European Union) and Eurostat Comext, updated 13 November 2026. Licence: CC BY 4.0.
CPV group 796 across the EU, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein: how much public buyers award, who wins, where from, and how the market splits by country.
The market in numbers
Public supply contracts in Europe: award notices published on TED from 2023-11 to 2026-11, by publication year.
- Contracts awarded
- 1.4K
- in 414 award notices
- Awarded value
- €485.4M
- from 79% of awards with a published value
- Winning companies
- 471
- with at least one award
- Public buyers
- 146
- hospitals, cities, agencies
Table view
| 2024 | 431 |
| 2025 | 553 |
| 2026 | 371 |
Table view
| 2024 | €164.7M |
| 2025 | €209.6M |
| 2026 | €111.1M |
- Other5
Table view
| Universities, schools and research | 488 |
| Hospitals and health services | 373 |
| Armed forces and defence agencies | 200 |
| Cities, regions and central administration | 193 |
| Police, fire services and prisons | 77 |
| Economic affairs | 9 |
| Electricity utilities | 6 |
| Railway operators | 4 |
| Other | 5 |
- Romania703243 companies
- Bulgaria32366 companies
- Poland201108 companies
- Denmark8217 companies
- Sweden107 companies
- France98 companies
- Spain65 companies
- Czechia64 companies
- Slovakia33 companies
- Norway22 companies
Table view
| Romania | 703 |
| Bulgaria | 323 |
| Poland | 201 |
| Denmark | 82 |
| Sweden | 10 |
| France | 9 |
| Spain | 6 |
| Czechia | 6 |
| Slovakia | 3 |
| Norway | 2 |
- Large companies
- Medium-sized
- Small
- Micro
- SME (size not stated)
- Size not stated
Table view
| Large companies | 105 · 7.7% |
| Medium-sized | 313 · 23.1% |
| Small | 308 · 22.7% |
| Micro | 10 · 0.7% |
| SME (size not stated) | 364 · 26.9% |
| Size not stated | 255 · 18.8% |
- Germany8
- Spain2
- France2
- Netherlands2
- Türkiye2
- Latvia1
Table view
| Germany | 8 |
| Spain | 2 |
| France | 2 |
| Netherlands | 2 |
| Türkiye | 2 |
| Latvia | 1 |
Awards to companies registered in the buyer's own country
98.5%
20 awards went to companies registered elsewhere.
Share of the 5 biggest winners
12.8%
Of all awards; a high share means a concentrated market.
Lots with a single bid
54.5%
Among 1.3K awards whose notice states the number of tenders.
How we count: one award per procedure, lot and winning company, from live contract award notices; a joint procurement counts on every buyer's market. Values are the awarded amounts published in the notice (framework ceilings and estimates are never added), converted to euro at the ECB yearly average. Company size is the SME flag of the notice (eForms BT-165). Read the methodology.
Country pages
Countries with fewer than 25 winning companies in this group have no separate page; their awards are counted above.
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Questions
- How big is the recruitment services market in Europe?
- In 2025, public buyers in 30 European countries awarded 553 supply contracts for recruitment services through award notices on TED; the 458 of them that state a value (82.8%) add up to €210 million.
- How many public contracts for recruitment services are awarded in Europe?
- Since November 2023 public buyers in 30 European countries awarded 1,355 supply contracts for recruitment services in 414 TED award notices; the 1,066 awards with a published value add up to €485.4M.
- Which countries buy the most recruitment services through public tenders?
- Romania (703 awards), Bulgaria (323 awards), Poland (201 awards) lead; 471 companies won at least one award across Europe.
- How often do foreign suppliers win recruitment services contracts?
- 1.5% of the awards went to a company registered in another country than the buyer; the most frequent foreign origin is Germany.
Source: contract award notices on TED — Tenders Electronic Daily (ted.europa.eu), © European Union, published since November 2023; processed by Cresques. Numbers updated 2026-11-13.