According to data from the Serbian Business Registers Agency (APR), there are exactly 33,465 companies operating in Serbia without a single employee—meaning nearly one in three companies has no employees at all. Most of these are micro companies, but notably, four of them are classified as large companies, each generating over 4.68 billion dinars in annual revenue.
At the end of 2024, Serbia had a total of 112,670 registered companies employing 1,325,497 workers. These companies reported combined revenues exceeding 20,086 billion dinars and total expenses of 18,988 billion dinars during the year.
Despite this, 31,069 companies finished the year with losses, 13,214 broke even, and 68,387 were profitable.
Among all these, the 33,465 companies without employees have increased by 706 compared to 2023. These employee-free companies make up 29.7% of all businesses, primarily operating in wholesale and retail trade (9,251 companies), professional, scientific, technical and innovation sectors (4,334), manufacturing (4,306), and construction (3,853).
A striking example is the Ušće Shopping Center, which reported operating income of 2.7 billion dinars and a net profit of 836 million dinars in 2024—yet it had zero employees. The company is fully owned by BreAtt Serbia BV, a Netherlands-based firm, and its primary activity is renting and managing real estate. It has no employees as of December 31, 2024.
Typically, companies without employees still have a legal representative or director, who may not be formally employed but acts as the company’s representative under a contract. Sometimes, another company can serve as the director.
In previous years, the most profitable companies without employees often engaged in electricity trading, though specific names from 2024 remain undisclosed, as APR does not release detailed individual company data in its annual reports.
Out of the companies without employees, the vast majority—98.7% or 33,023—are micro companies. There are also 405 small, 33 medium, and 4 large companies in this group.
The classification of companies in Serbia is not solely based on the number of employees. Instead, it depends on meeting two out of three criteria: average number of employees, business income, and total assets.
- Micro companies meet no more than two of these thresholds: up to 10 employees, revenue up to 82 million dinars, and assets up to 41 million dinars.
- Small companies meet no more than two of: up to 50 employees, revenue up to 937 million dinars, and assets up to 468 million dinars.
- Medium companies meet no more than two of: up to 250 employees, revenue up to 4.68 billion dinars, and assets up to 2.34 billion dinars.
- Large companies exceed at least two of the medium-sized company thresholds.
Since companies without employees clearly do not meet the employee count criterion for medium or large companies, those classified as large must have significant revenues (over 4.6 billion dinars) and assets (over 2.3 billion dinars).
This highlights that company size in Serbia is defined by financial indicators, not just workforce size.
