A record number ceased operations in the first quarter of this year: 61,000. This was the greatest increase in a decade (37%).

There was a similar decline in startups, at 17% the greatest decline in a decade. Only 60,450 new businesses were registered.

This partly has to do with increasing regulation.

There also was a decline in bankruptcies.

Source: Dutch Financial Times (FD)

Then there is this, impacting businesses all over the world: