Archive:Legal, accounting, market research and consultancy services statistics - NACE Rev. 1.1

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Data from December 2008 and January 2009, most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.

Table 1: Legal, accounting, book-keeping and auditing activities; tax consultancy; market research and public opinion polling; business and management consultancy; holdings (NACE Group 74.1), 2006

Table 2: Legal activities (NACE Class 74.11), 2005

Table 3: Accounting, book-keeping and auditing activities; tax consultancy (NACE Class 74.12), 2005

Table 4: Business and management consultancy activities (NACE Class 74.14), 2005

This article extends across a variety of professional activities that include legal services, accounting, book-keeping, auditing, tax consultancy, market research, public opinion polling, business and management consultancy services, as well as management activities relating to holding companies. These are all classified within NACE Group 74.1, and in this publication are referred to as professional business services.

Main statistical findings

Legal services cover the activities of advocates, barristers, solicitors, notaries, registered lawyers and legal consultants. Enterprises in this sector are generally small, and a common legal form is that of partnerships. Another characteristic of these activities is that they are used by households, for instance when they need an accountant, a lawyer, a notary or a tax adviser.

Structural profile

The 1.6 million enterprises active in the EU-27’s professional business services sector (NACE Group 74.1) employed 5.1 million persons in 2006. As such this sector accounted for more than one third (36.7 %) of all enterprises in the business services (NACE Divisions 72 and 74) population in 2006, and provided employment for just under one quarter (23.1 %) of the business services workforce. Paid employees accounted for a relatively low proportion (75.7 %) of the EU-27’s professional services workforce, indicating a large proportion of working proprietors and unpaid family workers: the average proportion of paid employees for all business services was 84.5 %.

This sector’s contribution to business services was greater when measured in output rather than employment terms: professional business services generated EUR 525.2 billion of turnover (SBS) and EUR 279.2 billion of value added in 2006, accounting for 29.8 % of the business services turnover and 31.3 % of its value added. Professional business services had therefore the largest turnover and value added among the business services activities.

The United Kingdom generated more than one quarter (27.0 %) of the EU-27’s value added in this sector in 2006, the largest contribution among the Member States, followed by France and Germany that each contributed between 17 % and 18 %. Along with Italy, the only other Member State with a double digit share of EU-27 value added, the four largest Member States dominated this sector, collectively accounting for 72.1 % of EU-27 value added; for comparison, their share within business services was 70.6 % and within the non-financial business economy (NACE Sections C to I and K) as a whole it was 64.6 %. These four Member States were also the largest employers in the sector. This activity was also particularly important in Belgium and Luxembourg: indeed, the professional business services sector accounted for 9.2 % of non-financial business economy value added in Luxembourg, some way ahead of the 7.0 % share in the United Kingdom and the 6.6 % share in Belgium.

A product analysis

Data are available for a limited set of countries to allow a product analysis for three of the five NACE classes covered by the professional business services sector. Legal advisory and representation services accounted for the highest proportion of turnover in all of the countries concerning the legal activities subsector, except in Latvia, Lithuania and Malta. For enterprises in accounting, book-keeping, auditing and tax consultancy activities, four fifths of turnover was derived from the main products associated with these activities, with a further 13 % derived from business and management consultancy. The turnover derived by those enterprises operating within business and management consultancy activities was spread across a wide range of products, with just over three fifths of turnover derived from the main business and management consultancy services.

Expenditure and productivity

The EU-27’s professional business services sector invested around EUR 27.2 billion in 2006, approximately two fifths (40.9 %) of the business services total, a greater share than this sector contributed in value added terms. Consequently this sector recorded an above average investment rate, 9.7 % compared with the business services average of 7.5 %. As for computer and related activities, professional business services also reported above average apparent labour productivity (EUR 54.5 thousand per person employed)and average personnel costs (SBS) (EUR 41.5 thousand per employee), in both cases the second highest among the business services activities. The wage adjusted labour productivity ratio that resulted from the combination of these two indicators was 131.4 %, marginally above the business services average. Among the Member States only the Hungarian professional business services sector had a wage adjusted labour productivity ratio below 100 % in 2006, meaning that apparent labour productivity was lower than average personnel costs.

Data sources and availability

Context

Further Eurostat information

Publications

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Main tables

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Database

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