Archive:Services to buildings and landscape activities statistics - NACE Rev. 2
- Data from April 2012. 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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Main statistical findings
Structural profile
Some 339 thousand enterprises operated within the services to buildings and landscape activities (Division 81) sector in the EU-27 in 2009. Together they employed 4.06 million persons, equivalent to 3.0 % 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 over one third (33.7 %) of the administrative and support services (Section N) workforce. These enterprises generated EUR 73 002 million of value added which was 1.3 % of the non-financial business economy total and just over one fifth (20.9 %) of the administrative and support services total.
The apparent labour productivity of the EU-27's services to buildings and landscape activities sector in 2009 was EUR 18 thousand of value added per person employed, less than half the non-financial business economy average (EUR 41.6 thousand) and some EUR 11 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 15.5 thousand per employee in 2009, almost half the non-financial business economy average (EUR 30.0 thousand per employee) and well below the administrative and support services average (EUR 20.9 thousand).
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 – 115.8 % in 2009 – which was below the non-financial business economy average (138.8 %) and the administrative and support services average (139.1 %).
The gross operating rate (which presents the relationship between the gross operating surplus and turnover) is one measure of operating profitability; it stood at 13.1 % for the EU-27’s services to buildings and landscape activities sector in 2009, which was about one third higher than the non-financial business economy average (9.7 %), but below the administrative and support services average (15.2 %).
Sectoral analysis
More than half (55.9 %) of all the enterprises within the EU-27’s services to buildings and landscape activities sector in 2009 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) as the activity of the remaining 8.0 % of enterprises within this sector.
In output terms, the relative importance of cleaning activities in the EU-27’s services to buildings and landscape activities sector rose to almost three quarters (72.4 %) of sectoral value added in 2009, while the remaining added value was split between landscape service activities (16.4 %) and combined facilities support activities (11.2 %). 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 2009. Some 83.2 % 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 3.38 million persons employed within the EU-27’s cleaning activities workforce in 2009. The relative share of the landscape service activities subsector was 9.4 %, considerably lower than for its sectoral share of enterprises or value added, confirming the small average employment size of enterprises (an average of 3.1 persons employed per enterprise) in this subsector relative to the two other subsectors. The remaining 7.4 % of the services to buildings and landscape activities sector’s workforce were employed within combined facilities support activities.
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 2009, below the average for the non-financial business economy (EUR 41.6 thousand per person employed) and – with the exception of landscape service activities (EUR 31 thousand per person employed) – below the average for administrative and support service activities (EUR 29 thousand per person employed). EU-27 apparent labour productivity for the cleaning activities subsector was particularly low (EUR 16 thousand per person employed). Indeed, this was the joint third lowest level of apparent labour productivity – alongside the manufacture of wearing apparel, except fur apparel (Group 14.1) – among all of the NACE groups that make-up the non-financial business economy, higher only than for beverage serving activities (Group 56.3) and retail sales via stalls and markets (Group 47.8).
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 24.2 thousand for the landscape service activities subsector in 2009, some EUR 0.6 thousand per employee higher than for combined facilities support activities. The largest subsector – cleaning activities – recorded the lowest average personnel costs, at EUR 14.0 thousand per employee; the fifth 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 2009, the resulting wage-adjusted labour productivity ratios for these three subsectors were all below the non-financial business economy average (138.8 %). The highest wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio (128.4 %) was recorded for landscape service activities, while the ratios for combined facilities support activities (115.6 %) and cleaning activities (111.8 %) 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 (9.7 %) for two of the three subsectors within the services to buildings and landscape activities sector. The EU-27 gross operating rate for cleaning activities was 11.7 %, although operating profitability (using this measure) rose considerably higher for landscape service activities (20.1 %). The only exception was combined facilities support activities, where the gross operating rate was slightly (0.4 percentage points) below the non-financial business economy average.
Country analysis
Germany had the highest share (22.2 %) of EU-27 value added within the services to buildings and landscape activities sector in 2009, with added value of EUR 16 219 million. This was considerably higher than the shares recorded by the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Italy – although all four of these 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 (20.1 %) and the landscape service activities subsector (31.4 %), although the added value generated in the United Kingdom’s combined facilities support activities subsector (39.0 % of the EU-27 total) was higher than in Germany.
The German services to buildings and landscape activities workforce of just over a million persons was the largest in the EU-27, accounting for in excess of one quarter (25.2 %) of the sectoral total in 2009. Around three quarters (75.1 %) of the EU-27’s services to buildings and landscape activities workforce worked in one of five Member States – Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy and France (note that the data for the latter are in terms of employees and not persons employed).
In value added terms, Finland and Spain were the most specialised Member States in the services to buildings and landscape activities sector in 2009, as this sector generated 2.0 % and 1.9 % respectively of non-financial business economy value added. Finland was particularly specialised in the combined facilities support activities subsector, while Spain was the most specialised Member State for cleaning activities, and Germany for landscape service activities.
All but one of the Member States reported relatively low wage-adjusted labour productivity ratios for services to buildings and landscape activities in 2009. Latvia (178.5 %) was the only country where the wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio for this sector was above the national non-financial business economy average; it also recorded the highest ratio. At the other end of the range, Sweden was the only Member State to record a wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio for services to buildings and landscape activities that was below 100 %.
There were relatively high levels of operating profitability for services to buildings and landscape activities, as demonstrated by the fact that only three Member States – Ireland, Portugal and Spain – reported that their gross operating rates in this sector were below national averages for the whole of the non-financial business economy. In contrast, the gross operating rate (26.9 %) for Latvian services to buildings and landscape activities was the highest among the Member States and was some 2.8 times as high as the national non-financial business economy average (the biggest relative difference among the Member States).
Data sources and availability
The analysis presented in this article is based on the main dataset for structural business statistics (SBS) which are disseminated annually. The series provides information for each 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.
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).
Further Eurostat information
Publications
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)
- Preliminary results on services, main indicators (NACE Rev.2) (sbs_sc_r2preli)
- SMEs - Annual enterprise statistics broken down by size classes - services (sbs_sc_sc)
- Services broken down by employment size classes (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, figures and maps (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