Archive:Demand for services
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The importance of services in the European Union (EU) economy has risen, while the EU's industrial sector has been characterised by outsourcing and subcontracting as well as the globalisation of production.
Since services are an important and growing area of the EU economy, they have attracted increasing political and economic interest, as a current and future motor for growth.
Context
One reason why the services sector has grown in importance is the outsourcing phenomenon that has seen the demand for services increase, as many enterprises use service providers either for:
- non-core activities (such as transport or marketing services), or;
- for part of their core activities to increase flexibility (for example, through the use of labour recruitment services).
Other reasons include technological developments – particularly in relation to information and communication technologies (ICT) – which may allow services to be delivered over considerable distances (for example, internet sales or call centres).
The objective of the development project on the demand for services was to collect information on the functioning of the internal market for services, allowing a more profound understanding of the extent of the use of services in the European economy. It provides information on:
- service providers;
- types of service purchased;
- the location of the main service provider;
- barriers to purchasing services;
- the level of expectations for future purchases;
- information on service related investments in intangibles (such as tradable rights, ICT, R & D, marketing and sales).
The European Services Directive 123/2006 seeks to promote an internal market in services through the removal of legal and administrative barriers that have prevented enterprises from one Member State providing similar services in another Member State. The Directive aims to make it easier for businesses to provide and use cross-border services within the EU, increasing cross-border competition.
Main findings
- Purchases of transport, logistics and postal services and marketing and sales related services accounted for the largest shares of the total purchases of services.
- For the clear majority of enterprises in all participating countries the main service provider was external, as opposed to internal from within the same enterprise/enterprise group.
- Main external service providers were usually from the same region.
- Location stands out as the main barrier to enterprises in search of services outside of their own country.
- In each participating Member State, the proportion of respondents that envisaged their demand for services rising clearly outweighed those that thought their level of demand would decrease, this was particularly true for future purchases of IT, transport, logistics, postal and advertising services.
See also
- Business services
- Services introduced
- Services statistics - short-term indicators
- Structural business statistics - theme navigation page
- Structural business statistics introduced - background article
Further Eurostat information
Publications
- The demand for services: external but local provision - Statistics in focus 26/2006
Main tables
- Structural business statistics (t_sbs) (New activity classification (NACE Rev. 2))
- SBS - services (t_serv)
Database
- Demand for services statistics - all activities (ds)
Dedicated section
Methodology / Metadata
- Demand for services statistics - all activities - (ESMS file ds_esms)
Source data for tables, figures and maps on this page (MS Excel)
Other information
- Directive 123/2006 of 12 December 2006 on services in the internal market