Structural business statistics: enterprises and enterprise groups - Year 2024

In 2024, the enterprises are over 4.5 million (+0.5% compared to 2023). This trend is driven primarily by the Services sector (+0.8%).

The value added in nominal value increase is 2.5%: +4.2% in services; +0.6% in manufacturing (including mining and quarrying and supply and sewerage); -0.5% in construction. The growth in value added in the services is driven by professional, scientific and technical activities (+0.9 p.p.) and by accommodation and food service activities, information and communication services, and transportation and storage services (+0.6 p.p. each).

The increase in employment stands at 1.1%, exceeding the average in services sector (+1.3%) and being higher for large (+3.8%) and medium-sized (+2.5%) enterprises.

The enterprises organised in groups (just over 200,000 enterprises) grew by 4.8% in terms of number and generated 66.4% of turnover and 58.7% of value added.

Employment on the rise, particularly in large companies

In 2024 there were just over 4.5 million active enterprises (Nace Rev. 2 sections B to S with the exception of sections K and O and division 94) (+0.5% compared to 2022) employing 18.3 million people (+1.1% on 2023), of which about 13.7 million employees (+2.5% on 2023).

In 2024, 8.1% of enterprises were active in manufacturing. The total number of enterprises in this sector decreased (-1.5%) from the previous year. Manufacturing enterprises employed 23.5% of the workforce and produced 34.7% of the total value added.

The construction sector accounted about 500k active enterprises (11.8% of total), employing 8.9% of persons employed, and generating 8.8% of total value added. The increase in employment compared to the previous year grows, +0.2% for total employment, while a 3.2% increase is recorded for employees.

About 80% of enterprises operated in services (+0.8% compared to 2023), employing 67.6% of total employment and producing 56.6% of total value added. For services, employment growth rate was slightly above average (+1.3%; +2.8% for employees).

Large enterprises (0.1% of the total) increased of 4.1% and generated approximately 35% of the added value in 2024. They employed a quarter of the total employment and about a third of total employees (33.4%), showing an increase of +3.8% for both variables compared to the previous year. Smaller increases were recorded for medium enterprises (+2.5% for total employment; +2.6% for employees).

4.4% of enterprises belonged to groups (200,016 enterprises in 131,212 groups), with over 7.2 million persons employed (+5.1% on 2023) and generating 58.7% of value added. Large enterprises organised into groups increased for 5.7% and generated 57.3% of the groups’ value added. Employment growth involved all types of groups: foreign multinationals by 6.0%, domestic groups grew by 4.9%, and Italian multinational groups by 4.6%.

Value added increasing and investment intensity decreasing slightly

In 2024, the value-added growth by 2.5%, although to a lesser extent than in the previous years. The growth in value added was associated with a reduction in turnover (-0.5%) and a contraction in costs for purchasing goods and services (-1.8%). In particular, there was a decrease both in costs for purchasing goods (-2.3%) and in costs for purchasing services (-0.7%).

The increase in value added is higher for large enterprise (+3.2%) and micro-enterprises (+3.1%). For medium enterprises the growth was +2.8%. Small enterprises recorded a decrease for the class 10-19 persons employed ((-0,7%) and an increase for 20-49 persons employed class (+1,3%).

The growth in value added is driven by enterprises organised in groups (+3.9%), whilst independent enterprises recorded modest growth (+0.6%). Value added is rising for both enterprises belonging to domestic groups (+3.7%) and those belonging to multinational groups (+3.9%), with the increase being more pronounced for foreign multinationals (+4.3%).

For enterprises belonging to groups, the growth is observed across all size classes, with the exception of the 10–19 persons employed class, which recorded a 1.8% decline. Micro-enterprises belonging to groups grew by 6.8%.

The increase in turnover is for classes with more than 50 employees: +1.6% for medium-sized and +1.2% for large enterprises.

Compared to 2023, the costs for purchasing goods fell across all size classes (-6.4% for micro-enterprises and -0,6% for large companies) with the exception of the medium-sized ones (+1.3%). The costs of purchasing services decreased (-1.9% for micro and -1,3% for medium enterprises) with the exception of the large enterprises (+1.8%).

In 2024, labour costs increased across all size classes: +4.0% for micro, +3.5% in the “10-19” size class, +5.4% in the “20-49” size class, +5.7% for medium e +6.6% for large enterprises.

Gross operating surplus decreased (-0.5%):  -6.1% in the “10-19” size class, -4,5% in the “20-49” size class and medium and large enterprises (-1.3 for both the classes). Micro-enterprises in contrast to the general trend, with a +2.7%.

In 2024, investments per employee decreased by 2.6% in nominal terms, from 8.4 thousand to 8.2 thousand euros. Trends varied according to the size of the enterprises; there was a decline for small and medium-sized enterprises and an increase for micro-enterprises (+10.1%) and large enterprises (+6.5%).

Services more dynamic in terms of value added and productivity

In 2024, manufacturing value added growth was +0.6% with better results for companies belonging to groups (+1.9%) but below average values (+2.5%). Value added increased for micro-enterprises (2.7%) and large companies (+1.7%). Compared to 2023, turnover declined (-1.7%) as well as purchasing of goods (-3.3%) whilst costs for the purchase of services increased (+1.5%). Labour costs rose by 4.7% while the gross operating surplus drop by -3.5%. Investment per employee decreased by -3.4%. In the sector, 9.8% of the companies were organised in group structures, realised 74.3% of the sector’s value added and employed 57.4% of the workforce and 62.8% of the employees. 

In 2024, construction value added decreased by 0.5% (+3.5% for companies belonging to groups). The other key indicators also showed a downward trend: -7.3% for turnover, -7.1% for gross operating surplus and -8.4% for investments per employee. Large companies in the sector break the trend, posting a 16.6% increase in value added. Costs for purchasing goods and services decreased, -7.9% and -9.5% respectively whilst labour costs rose by +7.3%. In the sector, 4.5% of the companies were organised in group structures, employed 22.2% of the workforce and 31.1% of the employees and realised 33.4% of the sector’s added value. 

In the services sector, the growth in value added in 2024 compared with 2023 was +4.2% (+5.7% for those in enterprise groups). Turnover increased (+1.4%) whilst costs for the purchase of goods and services decreased by -1.0% and -0.1%, respectively. Investments per employee also declined (-1.1%), while the sector recorded increases compared with the previous year in labour costs (+5.8%) and gross operating surplus (+2.6%). Value added increased with particularly significant figures for medium-sized (+7.3%) and small enterprises in the “20-49” size class (+4.3%). In Services, 3.9% of enterprises of the sector were part of a group representing 35.9% of employment, 50.3% of employees and 53.0% of the value added of services.

Apparent labour productivity increased by 4.2% for services and less in the others sectors (+0.5% for construction and +0.6% for manufacturing). Apparent labour productivity was generally higher for enterprises belonging to enterprise groups (about 89k against 41k and 200 euros for independent enterprises) for all the size classes. The largest gap continued to be observed for micro-enterprises, where the indicator goes from over 117k euros for enterprises in groups to 37k euros for independent enterprises.