Structure and competitiveness of the industrial and services enterprises

In 2013, value added of enterprise in industrial and services sectors reduced for the second year in a row (-1.7% compared to 2012); the number of persons employed decreased by 1.8%: due to a differential effect, labour productivity registered a slight increase (+0.1%). Gross investments in tangible goods decreased for the third year (-13.5% over 2012).

Active enterprises in industrial and services sectors were 4.3 million and employed 15.8 million persons (10.9 million employees). The average enterprise size was 3.7 employees.

Italian enterprises produced value added for about 678 billion euros. The value added per person employed was 42,800 euros, the personnel costs per employee were 34,900 euros, wage and salaries per employee were 25,100 euros, and the amount of gross profit margin was 25.4%.

Micro-enterprises (with less than 10 persons employed) represented 95.3% of active enterprises, 47.4% of persons employed and 30.6% of the total value added. Among them, those with only one person employed were over 2.4 million and contributed to one-third of the total value added of this class.

Small and medium enterprises (with 10-249 persons employed) employed 32.9% of the persons employed and accounted for 38.4% to the value added, while in larger enterprises (with 250 or more persons employed) there were 19.7% of persons employed and 31.0% of total value added.

The services sector – accounting for 77.2% of enterprises, 65.4% of persons employed and 57.2% of value added – remained the most important economic sector in quantitative terms. The industry (excluding constructions) represented 10.0% of enterprises, 25.5% of persons employed and 35.6% of value added. 12.8% of enterprises, 9.1% of persons employed and 7.2% of value added were concentrated in construction.

In the manufacturing sector, exporting enterprises realized 81.7% of value added and recorded higher levels of labour productivity (about 65,000 euros), wages and salaries per employee (approximately 31,800 euros) and gross profit margins (31.8%) than the sector average (respectively 53,200, 28,800 euros and 27.5%). The enterpises exporting more than half of their turnover realized a third of manufacturing value added and just under two-thirds of exports.

The export propensity of the manufacturing sector (measured by the ratio of exports to total turnover) amounted to 35.8%. Manufacturing enterprises within groups were less than 10% of the whole sector, accounted for almost half of persons employed and produced more than 60% of the sector value added.
Enterprises located in the North area of the Country contributed with 62.8% to the value added. The share of value added was 20.6% in the Centre area, 16.6% in the South and Islands area.

For more details please refer to the Italian version