Hunting for new employment: the role of high-growth firms

This study investigates the role of high growth firms for the creation of new employment in Sweden during the 1987-96 period. Our data set is unique in the sense that it captures both enterprise and company group levels of analysis, and in that organic growth can be separated from growth through acquisitions. The results do not support the notion that a small elite of high growth firms accounts for a majority share of employment creation. They rather strengthen the belief that birth and modest growth of large numbers of small and young firms create the lion’s share of genuinely new jobs. We hold that this should not be taken as a sign that high growth firms are unimportant, but as suggesting they are too few.