Archive:Services to buildings and landscape activities statistics - NACE Rev. 2
- Data from April 2013. Most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.
This article presents an overview of statistics for the services to buildings and landscape activities sector in the European Union (EU), as covered by NACE Rev. 2 Division 81.
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(% share of sectoral total) - Source: Eurostat (sbs_na_1a_se_r2)
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(% share of sectoral total) - Source: Eurostat (sbs_sc_1b_se_r2)
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Main statistical findings
Structural profile
Some 366 thousand enterprises operated within the services to buildings and landscape activities (Division 81) sector in the EU-27 in 2010. Together they employed 4.2 million persons, equivalent to 3.2 % of the total number of persons employed in the non-financial business economy (Sections B to J and L to N and Division 95) or just under one third (32.6 %) of the administrative and support services (Section N) workforce. These enterprises generated EUR 78.2 billion of value added which was 1.3 % of the non-financial business economy total and just over one fifth (20.6 %) of the administrative and support services total.
The apparent labour productivity of the EU-27’s services to buildings and landscape activities sector in 2010 was EUR 18.8 thousand of value added per person employed, less than half the non-financial business economy average (EUR 44.8 thousand) and some EUR 10.2 thousand below the administrative and support services average. As such, the services to buildings and landscape activities sector recorded the third lowest level of apparent labour productivity among any of the NACE divisions (for which data are available) in the non-financial business economy.
This very low level of apparent labour productivity was mirrored in the average personnel costs for the EU-27’s services to buildings and landscape activities sector, which stood at EUR 15.9 thousand per employee in 2010, almost half the non-financial business economy average (EUR 30.9 thousand per employee) and well below the administrative and support services average (EUR 21.6 thousand). The services to buildings and landscape activities sector recorded the third lowest level of average personnel costs among any of the NACE divisions (for which data are available) in the non-financial business economy.
The wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio combines the two previous indicators and shows the extent to which value added per person employed covers average personnel costs per employee. With very low productivity and average personnel costs, the EU-27’s services to buildings and landscape activities sector had a low wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio — 118.0 % in 2010 — which was below the non-financial business economy average (144.8 %) and the administrative and support services average (137.0 %).
The gross operating rate (which presents the relationship between the gross operating surplus and turnover) is one measure of operating profitability; it stood at 13.7 % for the EU-27’s services to buildings and landscape activities sector in 2010, which was about one third higher than the non-financial business economy average (10.1 %), but below the administrative and support services average (16.0 %).
Sectoral analysis
More than half (55.1 %) of all the enterprises within the EU-27’s services to buildings and landscape activities sector in 2010 were engaged in cleaning activities (Group 81.2), while in excess of one third (36.2 %) operated with landscape services (Group 81.3) as their principal activity, leaving combined facilities support activities (Group 81.1) with the residual share of 8.5 % of enterprises.
In output terms, the relative importance of cleaning activities in the EU-27’s services to buildings and landscape activities sector was higher, rising to 70.8 % of sectoral value added in 2010, while the remaining added value was split between landscape service activities (16.0 %) and combined facilities support activities (13.3 %). There was an even greater shift towards cleaning activities when analysing the breakdown of employment within the EU-27’s services to buildings and landscape activities sector in 2010. Some 80.7 % of the workforce was employed within the cleaning activities subsector — emphasising the relative importance of labour input to this activity and also possibly reflecting high rates of part-time employment; there were 3.39 million persons employed within the EU-27’s cleaning activities workforce in 2010. The relative share of the landscape service activities subsector was 10.4 %, which was much lower than its sectoral share of enterprises or value added. The remaining 7.9 % of the services to buildings and landscape activities sector’s workforce were employed within combined facilities support activities.
These differences in the size of each subsector, as measured by enterprises, employment and value added, can be used to analyse the average size of enterprises or their apparent labour productivity. Within the EU-27 landscape service activities subsector, enterprises employed an average of 3.3 persons each in 2010, a considerably lower number than for either the combined facilities support activities subsector (10.6 persons per enterprise) or cleaning activities (16.8 persons per enterprise).
All three of the subsectors within the EU-27’s services to buildings and landscape activities sector recorded relatively low levels of apparent labour productivity in 2010, below the average for the non-financial business economy (EUR 44.8 thousand per person employed) and — with the exception of combined facilities support activities (EUR 31.0 thousand per person employed) — below the average for administrative and support service activities (EUR 29.0 thousand per person employed). EU-27 apparent labour productivity for the cleaning activities subsector was particularly low (EUR 16.3 thousand per person employed). Indeed, this was the fourth lowest level of apparent labour productivity among all of the NACE groups that constitute the non-financial business economy, higher only than for retail sales via stalls and markets (Group 47.8), beverage serving activities (Group 56.3) and investigation activities (Group 80.3).
Alongside relatively low levels of apparent labour productivity, the three services to buildings and landscape subsectors also had relatively low average personnel costs that were below the EU-27 non-financial business economy average. Average personnel costs per employee peaked at EUR 24.7 thousand for combined facilities support activities in 2010, some EUR 1.2 thousand per employee higher than for the landscape service activities subsector. The largest subsector — cleaning activities — recorded the lowest average personnel costs, at EUR 14.3 thousand per employee in the EU-27; the fourth lowest value among any of the NACE groups within the non-financial business economy.
As EU-27 average personnel costs were proportionally not as low as apparent labour productivity in 2010, the resulting wage-adjusted labour productivity ratios for these three subsectors were all below the non-financial business economy average (144.8 %). The highest wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio (130.0 %) was recorded for combined facilities support activities, while the ratios for landscape service activities (120.9 %) and cleaning activities (114.0 %) were somewhat lower.
The pattern of relatively low productivity ratios was reversed when analysing gross operating profitability, as gross operating rates were higher than the non-financial business economy average (10.1 %) for all three subsectors within the services to buildings and landscape activities sector. The EU-27 gross operating rate in 2010 for cleaning activities was 11.9 %, while operating profitability (using this measure) was higher for combined facilities support activities (14.0 %), before peaking at 19.5 % for landscape service activities; the latter was the only one of the three subsectors to record a gross operating rate that was higher than the average for administrative and support service activities as a whole (16.0 %).
Country analysis
Germany had the highest share (22.5 %) of EU-27 value added within the services to buildings and landscape activities sector in 2010, with added value of EUR 17.6 billion. This was considerably higher than the shares recorded by the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Italy — although all four of these EU Member States also registered double-digit shares of EU-27 value added. Germany had the highest share of value added for both the cleaning activities subsector (20.6 %) and the landscape service activities subsector (32.1 %), although the added value generated in the United Kingdom’s combined facilities support activities subsector (44.4 % of the EU-27 total) was considerably higher.
The German services to buildings and landscape activities workforce of just over a million persons was the largest in the EU-27, accounting for around one quarter (25.1 %) of the sectoral total in 2010. Just over three quarters (75.7 %) of the EU-27’s services to buildings and landscape activities workforce worked in one of five EU Member States — Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy and France.
In value added terms, Finland and Spain were the most specialised EU Member States in the services to buildings and landscape activities sector in 2010, as this sector generated 2.0 % of non-financial business economy value added in each country. Finland was particularly specialised in the combined facilities support activities subsector, while Spain was the most specialised Member State for cleaning activities, and Belgium for landscape service activities. The services to buildings and landscape activities sector was relatively small — in value added terms — in most of the non-member countries for which data are available, as it contributed less to non-financial business economy value added than the EU-27 average (1.3 %) in Switzerland, Norway and, in particular, Croatia (0.5 %). By contrast, the services to buildings and landscape activities sector was slightly more developed in Turkey — on the basis of this comparison — as it provided 1.6 % of Turkish non-financial business economy value added in 2009.
All but one of the EU Member States reported relatively low wage-adjusted labour productivity ratios for services to buildings and landscape activities in 2010; the same was true for the non-member countries. Slovakia (178.8 %) recorded the highest wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio and was also the only country where the wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio for this sector was above the national non-financial business economy average. At the other end of the range, Sweden and Portugal were the only Member States to record wage-adjusted labour productivity ratios for services to buildings and landscape activities that were below 100 %.
There were relatively high levels of operating profitability for services to buildings and landscape activities, as demonstrated by the fact that only four EU Member States among those for which data are available — Sweden, Ireland, France and Hungary — reported that their gross operating rates in this sector were below national averages for the whole of the non-financial business economy. By contrast, the gross operating rate (24.1 %) for Portuguese services to buildings and landscape activities was the highest among the Member States and was some 2.5 times as high as the national non-financial business economy average (the biggest relative difference among the Member States). The gross operating rate for services to buildings and landscape activities in Sweden was negative (-10.1 %), as a result of the added value generated within this sector in 2010 being lower than total personnel costs.
Size class analysis
There were 1.9 thousand large enterprises (employing 250 or more persons) active within the EU-27’s services to buildings and landscape activities sector in 2010. Together they employed 2.0 million persons (or 49.2 % of the workforce), which was slightly fewer than the total employed (2.2 million) across all small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs, employing fewer than 250 persons). Large enterprises within the EU-27’s services to buildings and landscape activities sector generated EUR 34.2 billion of added value (43.7 % of the sectoral total), which was more than double the value generated by each of the three remaining size classes, where added value was situated within a relatively narrow range —from EUR 16.8 billion for micro enterprises (employing fewer than 10 persons) to EUR 13.1 billion for medium-sized enterprises (employing 50 to 249 persons).
Apparent labour productivity within the EU-27’s services to buildings and landscape activities sector was higher in 2010, on average, for smaller enterprises. This productivity ratio peaked at EUR 24.8 thousand per person employed for micro enterprises and stood at EUR 20.8 thousand per person employed for small enterprises (employing 10 to 49 persons), falling to just under EUR 17 thousand per person employed for both medium-sized and large enterprises.
The United Kingdom (64.7 %) and Spain (54.2 %) were the only EU Member States in 2010 to report that a majority of those working within the services to buildings and landscape activities sector were employed by large enterprises. Otherwise, large enterprises recorded the highest share of sectoral employment (but less than 50 % of the total) in all but two of the Member States for which data are available; this pattern was also repeated in Switzerland, Norway and Croatia. Medium-sized enterprises accounted for the highest share of employment within the services to buildings and landscape activities sector in Bulgaria (27.8 %), while micro enterprises had the highest proportion of the workforce (34.6 %) in Slovenia.
Data sources and availability
The analysis presented in this article is based on the main dataset for structural business statistics (SBS) and size class data, all of which are published annually.
The main series provides information for each EU Member State as well as a number of non-member countries at a detailed level according to the activity classification NACE. Data are available for a wide range of variables.
In structural business statistics, size classes are generally defined by the number of persons employed. A limited set of the standard structural business statistics variables (for example, the number of enterprises, turnover, persons employed and value added) are analysed by size class, mostly down to the three-digit (group) level of NACE. The main size classes used in this article for presenting the results are:
- small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): with 1 to 249 persons employed, further divided into;
- micro enterprises: with less than 10 persons employed;
- small enterprises: with 10 to 49 persons employed;
- medium-sized enterprises: with 50 to 249 persons employed;
- large enterprises: with 250 or more persons employed.
Context
This article presents an overview of statistics for the services to buildings and landscape activities sector in the EU, as covered by NACE Rev. 2 Division 81.
This division includes the provision of a combination of support services within a client’s facilities, a variety of cleaning activities as well as landscape activities. Combined facilities support activities involve the provision of a combination of support services within a client’s facilities. These include general interior cleaning, maintenance, rubbish disposal, guard and security, mail routing, reception, laundry and related services to support operations within facilities. These support activities are performed by operating staff, which is not involved with or responsible for the core business or activities of the client.
Cleaning activities include the cleaning of all types of buildings, exterior cleaning of buildings, specialised cleaning activities for buildings or other specialised cleaning activities, cleaning of industrial machinery, cleaning of the inside of road and sea tankers, disinfecting and extermination activities for buildings and industrial machinery, bottle cleaning, street sweeping, snow and ice removal.
Landscape service activities include planting, care and maintenance of parks and gardens for private and public housing, industrial and commercial buildings, schools, hospitals, administrative buildings, church buildings and so on, as well as municipal grounds such as cemeteries. Also included is greenery for transport infrastructure, sports and playgrounds, around ponds, swimming pools and watercourses, and protective plants — for example against noise, wind or erosion.
This NACE division is composed of three groups:
- combined facilities support activities (Group 81.1);
- cleaning activities (Group 81.2);
- landscape service activities (Group 81.3).
Excluded from combined facilities support activities is the provision of a single (only one) support service, as well as the provision of management and operating staff for the complete operation of a client’s establishment (such as a hotel or restaurant). Excluded from cleaning activities are steam cleaning and blasting and similar activities for building exteriors (which are part of specialised construction activities, Division 43) and automobile cleaning and car wash (part of motor trades, Division 45). Excluded from landscape service activities are construction activities for landscaping purposes which are included within Section F and landscape design and architecture activities (part of architectural and engineering activities, technical testing and analysis, Division 71).
See also
- Administrative and support service activities
- Other analyses of the business economy by NACE Rev. 2 sector
- Structural business statistics introduced
Further Eurostat information
Publications
- European business - facts and figures (online publication)
Main tables
Database
- SBS – services (sbs_serv)
- Annual detailed enterprise statistics - services (sbs_na_serv)
- Annual detailed enterprise statistics for services (NACE Rev. 2 H-N and S95) (sbs_na_1a_se_r2)
- SMEs - Annual enterprise statistics by size class - services (sbs_sc_sc)
- Services by employment size class (NACE Rev. 2 H-N and S95) (sbs_sc_1b_se_r2)
- Annual detailed enterprise statistics - services (sbs_na_serv)
- SBS - regional data - all activities (sbs_r)
- SBS data by NUTS 2 regions and NACE Rev. 2 (from 2008 onwards) (sbs_r_nuts06_r2)
Dedicated section
Source data for tables and figures (MS Excel)
Other information
- Decision 1578/2007/EC of 11 December 2007 on the Community Statistical Programme 2008 to 2012
- Regulation 295/2008 of 11 March 2008 concerning structural business statistics