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Archive:Employment activities statistics - NACE Rev. 2

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Data from April 2012. Most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.

This article presents an overview of statistics for the employment activities sector in the European Union (EU), as covered by NACE Rev. 2 Division 78.

Table 1: Key indicators, employment activities (NACE Division 78), EU-27, 2009 - Source: Eurostat (sbs_na_1a_se_r2)
Figure 1: Sectoral breakdown of employment activities (NACE Division 78), EU-27, 2009 (1)
(% share of sectoral total) - Source: Eurostat (sbs_na_1a_se_r2)
Table 2a: Sectoral breakdown of key indicators, employment activities (NACE Division 78), EU-27, 2009 - Source: Eurostat (sbs_na_1a_se_r2)
Table 2b: Sectoral breakdown of key indicators, employment activities (NACE Division 78), EU-27, 2009 - Source: Eurostat (sbs_na_1a_se_r2)
Table 3: Largest and most specialised Member States in employment activities (NACE Division 78), EU-27, 2009 (1) - Source: Eurostat (sbs_na_1a_se_r2)
Table 4a: Key indicators, employment activities (NACE Division 78), 2009 - Source: Eurostat (sbs_na_1a_se_r2)
Table 4b: Key indicators, employment activities (NACE Division 78), 2009 - Source: Eurostat (sbs_na_1a_se_r2)

Main statistical findings

Structural profile

There were 65 thousand enterprises operating within the employment activities (Division 78) sector in the EU-27 in 2009. Together they employed 3.71 million persons, equivalent to 2.8 % of the non-financial business economy (Sections B to J and L to N and Division 95) workforce and almost one third (31.3 %) of the total number of persons employed in administrative and support services (Section N). These enterprises engaged in the EU-27’s employment activities sector generated EUR 87 456 million of value added in 2009 which was 1.6 % of the non-financial business economy total or one quarter (25.0 %) of the administrative and support services total.

Many persons employed by employment agencies work either atypical hours, on a part-time basis, or on temporary contracts. For some people this flexibility offers them the possibility to balance work and personal obligations, while for others their recourse to working for an employment agency may be borne out of the necessity to find work, and in this case their employment may be described as being precarious in nature. It is important to note that the statistics presented in this article relate to head counts of persons employed, and as such it is likely that the information presented overstates the volume of labour input, as not all of the persons who are employed by employment agencies are working on a regular, full-time basis. Equally, per head productivity measures such as apparent labour productivity are influenced by the incidence of part-time or temporary work and the low levels of productivity typically observed within this sector should be viewed in this context. The apparent labour productivity ratio stood at EUR 23 thousand of added value per person employed in 2009 for the EU-27's employment activities sector, well below the non-financial business economy average of EUR 41.6 thousand per person employed and some EUR 6 thousand per person employed lower than the average for administrative and support services.

This very low level of apparent labour productivity for the EU-27’s employment activities sector – the seventh lowest among any of the NACE divisions that make-up the non-financial business economy – was mirrored in lower than average average personnel costs; this is also a ratio calculated on a per head basis and is therefore pulled downwards by higher levels of part-time and temporary work. In 2009, average personnel costs stood at EUR 21.3 thousand per employee in this sector compared with EUR 30.0 thousand per employee for the non-financial business economy as a whole. In contrast, personnel costs were, on average, higher for the EU-27’s employment activities sector than their average for administrative and support services (EUR 20.9 thousand per employee).

The wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio combines the two previous indicators and shows the extent to which the value added generated by each employed person covers the average personnel costs of each employee. As this indicator combines two ratios that are calculated on a per head basis the impact of part-time and temporary work is eliminated to a large extent, and so this indicator provides a more comparable basis for analysing productivity in this and other sectors. Very low apparent labour productivity and average personnel costs that were proportionally somewhat closer to the non-financial business economy average, resulted in a wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio for the EU-27's employment activities in 2009 of 109.0 %. This was the eighth lowest ratio among the NACE divisions that constitute the non-financial business economy and was considerably below either the non-financial business economy average (138.8 %) or the administrative or support services average (139.1 %).

The gross operating rate (the relation between the gross operating surplus and turnover) is a measure of operating profitability; it stood at 7.3 % for the EU-27’s employment activities sector in 2009, which was 2.4 percentage points below the non-financial business economy average (9.7 %) and less than half the average rate recorded for administrative and support services (15.2 %).

Sectoral analysis

Of the three NACE groups that make-up the EU-27’s employment activities sector the largest, using any measure of size, was that of temporary employment agency activities (Group 78.2). This subsector accounted for just over half (50.3 %) of all the enterprises in the EU-27’s employment activities sector in 2009. However, its share of sectoral value added (76.7 %) and employment (79.1 %) was even more pronounced. The next largest subsector concerned the activities of employment placement agencies (Group 78.1), which accounted for more than four out of every ten (40.2 %) enterprises in 2008, but for much lower shares of sectoral value added (14.4 %) and sectoral employment (11.8 %) in 2009. The smallest activity (using any of these measures) was that of other human resources provision (Group 78.3) which accounted for less than 10 % of the sectoral workforce and added value.

The highest apparent labour productivity figure among the three subsectors that make-up the EU-27’s employment activities sector was recorded for employment placement agencies, at EUR 28 thousand of added value per person employed in 2009. This was EUR 5 thousand per person employed higher than for temporary employment agency activities and an additional EUR 1 thousand more than the productivity level recorded for other human resources provision.

EU-27 average personnel costs peaked at EUR 24.3 thousand per employee for activities of employment placement agencies in 2009, while the remaining two subsectors again reported levels that were somewhat lower and very similar, averaging EUR 21.5 thousand per employee for the other human resources provision subsector and EUR 20.8 thousand per employee for the temporary employment agency activities subsector. All of these values were well below the non-financial business economy average of EUR 30.0 thousand per employee.

The wage-adjusted labour productivity ratios of the subsectors that constitute the employment activities sector were all below the non-financial business economy average (138.8 %) and the administrative and support service activities average (139.1 %). The highest ratio (116.6 %) was recorded for the employment placement agencies subsector, while wage-adjusted labour productivity ratios for temporary employment agency activities and other human resources provision were much lower (108.3 % and 102.8 % respectively).

For the gross operating rate, there was a wider range in values between the three subsectors within the EU-27, peaking in 2009 at 12.3 % for activities of employment placement agencies, which was well above the average for the non-financial business economy (9.7 %), whereas the gross operating profitability of the other two subsectors was well below the non-financial business economy average, falling to 6.7 % for temporary employment agency activities and to 3.4 % for other human resources provision.

Country analysis

More than one quarter (25.8 %) of the EU-27’s value added within the employment activities sector in 2009 was generated in the United Kingdom, while France (22.1 %) and Germany (16.7 %) also accounted for high shares; the combined contribution made by these three countries was almost two thirds (64.6 %) of the EU-27’s total added value. The same three Member States also engaged the highest number of persons; note that the data for France relates to employees and not persons employed. The largest workforce within the EU-27’s employment activities sector was registered in the United Kingdom at 802.9 thousand persons in 2009, ahead of Germany (657.5 thousand) and France (642.9 thousand), while the Netherlands also had a large workforce (566.5 thousand) that was considerably larger than in Italy, Spain or Poland. This is perhaps symptomatic of the relatively low level of recourse made to employment activities in southern Europe and in those Member States that joined the EU in 2004 or 2007, whereas employment agencies are more developed in the north west of Europe, particularly in the Netherlands.

The 6.5 % share of EU-27 value added recorded in this sector for Belgium was the highest share for Belgium in any of the non-financial business economy NACE divisions (with data available) in 2009. As a consequence, in value added terms, Belgium was the most specialised Member State in the employment activities sector in 2009, as some 3.5 % of its non-financial business economy value added was generated by this sector. The Netherlands (2.8 %), the United Kingdom (2.6 %) and France (2.4 %) were also relatively specialised, whereas the Czech Republic, Latvia, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria each reported that employment activities generated less than 0.5 % of their non-financial business economy added value.

Across all of the Member States for which data are available in 2009, wage-adjusted labour productivity ratios for employment activities were consistently lower than national non-financial business economy averages. There were two countries, Italy and Sweden, where the wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio fell below 100 % – indicating that, on average, the average value added generated per person employed did not cover average personnel costs per employee. The highest wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio was recorded in Latvia, where the ratio for the employment activities sector was nevertheless more than one tenth lower than the non-financial business economy average.

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 employment activities sector in the EU, as covered by NACE Rev. 2 Division 78. The activities of employment placement agencies include personnel search, selection referral and placement activities (including executive placement and search activities), as well as activities of casting agencies and bureaus. Temporary employment agency activities include activities of supplying workers to clients' businesses for limited periods of time to supplement or temporarily replace the workforce of the client, where the individuals provided are employees of the temporary help service unit. However, units classified here do not provide direct supervision of their employees at the clients' work sites. Other human resources provision includes the activities of providing human resources and human resource management services for client businesses. Providers of these services represent the employer of record for the employees on matters relating to payroll, taxes, and other fiscal and human resource issues, but they are not responsible for the direction or supervision of employees.

This NACE division is composed of three groups:

  • activities of employment placement agencies (Group 78.1);
  • temporary employment agency activities (Group 78.2);
  • other human resources provision (Group 78.3).

Activities of agents for individual artists are excluded from the statistics covered in this article (see Division 74, part of other professional, scientific and technical activities).

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)
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

External links

See also

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