Statistics Explained

Archive:Manufacture of furniture statistics - NACE Rev. 2

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Data from April 2013. Most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.

This article presents an overview of statistics for furniture manufacturing in the European Union (EU), as covered by NACE Rev. 2 Division 31.

Table 1: Key indicators, manufacture of furniture (NACE Division 31), EU-27, 2010 - Source: Eurostat (sbs_na_ind_r2)
Figure 1: Sectoral analysis of manufacture of furniture (NACE Division 31), EU-27, 2010 (1)
(% share of sectoral total) - Source: Eurostat (sbs_na_ind_r2)
Table 2a: Sectoral analysis of key indicators, manufacture of furniture (NACE Division 31), EU-27, 2010 - Source: Eurostat (sbs_na_ind_r2)
Table 2b: Sectoral analysis of key indicators, manufacture of furniture (NACE Division 31), EU-27, 2010 - Source: Eurostat (sbs_na_ind_r2)
Table 3: Largest and most specialised Member States in manufacture of furniture (NACE Division 31), EU-27, 2010 (1) - Source: Eurostat (sbs_na_ind_r2)
Table 4a: Key indicators, manufacture of furniture (NACE Division 31), 2010 - Source: Eurostat (sbs_na_ind_r2)
Table 4b: Key indicators, manufacture of furniture (NACE Division 31), 2010 - Source: Eurostat (sbs_na_ind_r2)
Table 5: Key size class indicators, manufacture of furniture (NACE Division 31), EU-27, 2010 - Source: Eurostat (sbs_sc_ind_r2)
Figure 2: Relative importance of enterprise size classes, manufacture of furniture (NACE Division 31), EU-27, 2010 (1)
(% share of sectoral total) - Source: Eurostat (sbs_sc_ind_r2)
Table 6a: Employment by enterprise size class, manufacture of furniture (NACE Division 31), 2010 - Source: Eurostat (sbs_sc_ind_r2)
Table 6b: Value added by enterprise size class, manufacture of furniture (NACE Division 31), 2010 - Source: Eurostat (sbs_sc_ind_r2)

Main statistical findings

Structural profile

The EU-27‘s furniture manufacturing (Division 31) sector included 130.0 thousand enterprises in 2010 that employed 1.04 million persons. As such, the EU-27’s furniture manufacturing sector represented 0.6 % of the total enterprise population in the non-financial business economy (Sections B to J and L to N and Division 95) and 0.8 % of the non-financial business economy’s workforce. The furniture manufacturing sector generated EUR 30.0 billion of value added across the EU-27 in 2010, which was 0.5 % of the non-financial business economy total, lower than its shares of employment and the enterprise population, thereby indicating that the furniture manufacturing sector was characterised by a relatively low level of apparent labour productivity and a relatively small average enterprise size. The EU-27’s furniture manufacturing sector accounted for 3.5 % of the manufacturing (Section C) workforce and 1.9 % of manufacturing value added in 2010.

The apparent labour productivity of the EU-27’s furniture manufacturing sector in 2010 was EUR 28.3 thousand per person employed, more than one third lower than the non-financial business economy average of EUR 44.8 thousand per person employed and even further below the manufacturing average of EUR 52.8 thousand per person employed. This low apparent labour productivity was accompanied by low average personnel costs which were equal to EUR 23.7 thousand per employee within the EU-27’s furniture manufacturing sector in 2010, a little less than one quarter below the EUR 30.9 thousand per employee average for the non-financial business economy and around one third below the EUR 35.8 thousand per employee average for manufacturing as a whole.

The wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio combines the two previous indicators and shows that apparent labour productivity in the EU-27’s furniture manufacturing sector was 120.0 % of average personnel costs per employee, a lower ratio than the averages recorded for the non-financial business economy (144.8 %) and manufacturing (148.0 %). The wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio in the furniture manufacturing sector was the second lowest in 2010 among the manufacturing NACE divisions, higher only than for the repair and installation of machinery and equipment (Division 33). Alongside the relatively low wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio, the EU-27’s furniture manufacturing sector recorded relatively low operating profitability, as measured by the gross operating rate (in other words, the ratio between the gross operating surplus and turnover). This rate was 7.9 % for the EU-27’s furniture manufacturing sector in 2010, below the manufacturing average (9.0 %) and the non-financial business economy average (10.1 %).

Sectoral analysis

The furniture manufacturing sector is composed of four NACE classes, three of which concern a particular type of furniture manufacturing, while the fourth covers all remaining furniture manufacturing. Within the EU-27, the largest of the four subsectors in 2010 was the manufacture of other furniture (Class 31.09), with more than half (56.2 %) of sectoral value added and nearly two thirds (66.3 %) of the sectoral workforce. Among the three more specific subsectors, the largest activity was the manufacture of office and shop furniture (Class 31.01) with close to one fifth (18.6 %) of sectoral employment and more than one fifth (22.7 %) of sectoral value added, followed by the manufacture of kitchen furniture (Class 31.02) which was about three fifths the size of the office and shop furniture manufacturing subsector. The smallest subsector was mattresses manufacturing (Class 31.03).

The low apparent labour productivity figure for the whole of the EU-27’s furniture manufacturing sector was pulled downwards by the largest subsector, namely the manufacture of other furniture, where EU-27 apparent labour productivity in 2010 was EUR 24.5 thousand per person employed, less than half the manufacturing average (EUR 52.8 thousand per person employed). Value added per person employed in the remaining subsectors was EUR 36.6 thousand for kitchen furniture manufacturing and EUR 35.1 thousand for office and shop furniture manufacturing: an incomplete aggregate based on data available for 24 Member States [1] shows that the apparent labour productivity for mattresses manufacturing was just over EUR 28 thousand per person employed.

For the three subsectors which are concerned with manufacturing a particular type of furniture, average personnel costs per employee within the EU-27 ranged in 2010 from EUR 25.0 thousand (2009 data) for mattresses manufacturing to EUR 30.4 thousand for office and shop furniture manufacturing; average personnel costs for the manufacture of other furniture were well below this range, at EUR 20.5 thousand per employee.

The relatively low wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio recorded for the EU-27’s furniture manufacturing sector as a whole in 2010 was common across all subsectors, ranging from 115.3 % for office and shop furniture manufacturing to 130.0 % for mattresses manufacturing; each of these ratios was considerably lower than the manufacturing average (148.0 %).

The EU-27’s kitchen furniture manufacturing subsector recorded a gross operating rate that was above the manufacturing average (9.0 %) but below the non-financial business economy average (10.1 %) in 2010, while the rates for office and shop furniture manufacturing and for other furniture manufacturing were below the manufacturing average. For mattresses manufacturing the gross operating rate was 7.9 % in 2010, once more based on an aggregate of the available data for 24 Member States.

Country analysis

In value added terms, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom were the largest Member States in the furniture manufacturing sector in 2010, accounting for 22.5 %, 16.8 % and 10.8 % of the EU total respectively. Spain (8.1 % of the EU-27 total) and France (8.0 %) were the next largest contributors to value added in the EU-27’s furniture manufacturing sector. The 0.7 % share of EU-27 value added recorded by Lithuania in the furniture manufacturing sector was the highest share for Lithuania in any of the non-financial business economy NACE divisions (with data available) in 2010; Poland’s 6.7 % share was its third highest share. At a more detailed level, Germany had the highest value added for each of the four furniture manufacturing subsectors. Based on employment, the largest Member States in the furniture manufacturing sector were Italy (15.7 % of employment in the EU-27), Poland (15.3 %) and Germany (14.1 %).

Given its relatively large share of EU-27 value added in this sector, it is unsurprising that the relative importance of the furniture manufacturing sector was highest in Lithuania where it contributed 2.2 % of value added in the non-financial business economy in 2010. The next most specialised Member States, in value added terms, were Estonia (1.3 % of non-financial business economy value added was generated in furniture manufacturing) and Poland (1.2 %). The Member States that were least specialised in furniture manufacturing (in value added terms) were France and Luxembourg where this sector contributed 0.3 % or less of non-financial business economy value added in 2010; Norway was also relatively unspecialised in this sector.

France and Greece (2009 data) recorded wage-adjusted labour productivity ratios below 100.0 % for furniture manufacturing in 2010, as average personnel costs per employee exceeded apparent labour productivity per person employed. Wage-adjusted labour productivity ratios were generally low across the EU Member States, as this ratio for furniture manufacturing was below the non-financial business economy and manufacturing averages in every Member State (for which data are available). The highest wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio for furniture manufacturing was 180.4 % in Bulgaria, which was nevertheless 9.2 percentage points below the Bulgarian non-financial business economy average. In terms of the gross operating rate, the situation was slightly different: out of the 24 Member States for which data are available, the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Poland, Luxembourg and Belgium recorded gross operating rates for furniture manufacturing that were above their average rates for the whole of their non-financial business economies. The United Kingdom recorded by far the highest gross operating rate for furniture manufacturing, at 16.3 % in 2010.

Size class analysis

The EU-27’s furniture manufacturing sector was one of eight manufacturing NACE divisions where small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs, employing fewer than 250 persons) employed more than three quarters of the workforce in 2010. SMEs employed 77.5 % of the furniture manufacturing sector’s workforce and generated 72.2 % of total value added. Due to the lower sectoral share in value added terms, SMEs had a relatively low apparent labour productivity: EUR 26.9 thousand per person employed compared with an average for large enterprises (employing 250 or more persons) of EUR 33.5 thousand per person employed.

Small enterprises (employing 10 to 49 persons) were particularly important within the EUR-27’s furniture manufacturing sector in 2010. These enterprises employed 27.3 % of the workforce and provided a slightly smaller share (28.1 %) of value added. The employment and value added shares of small enterprises and medium-sized enterprises (employing 50 to 249 persons) within furniture manufacturing were both higher than the share of large enterprises: such a situation occurred in only five other manufacturing NACE divisions in 2010.

Cyprus and Luxembourg had no large enterprises in the furniture manufacturing sector in 2010 and therefore SMEs were responsible for all of the sectoral value added. In the vast majority of the other EU Member States, more than half of sectoral value added stemmed from SMEs, with shares below this level recorded only in Lithuania (44.6 %) and Poland (37.5 %). Small enterprises provided more than two fifths of furniture manufacturing value added in Portugal, Spain and Cyprus, while medium-size enterprises reached this level in the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Estonia and Sweden with their share rising to 59.0 % in Latvia.

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 furniture manufacturing sector in the EU, as covered by NACE Rev. 2 Division 31. This division includes the manufacture of furniture and related products of any material except stone, concrete and ceramic. Some of the processes used in furniture manufacturing are similar to processes that are used in other manufacturing activities. However, the multiple processes that are common in furniture manufacturing distinguish it from manufacturing of more simple products manufactured from similar materials (such as wood and metal).

The manufacture of office and shop furniture includes the manufacture of chairs and seats for offices, workrooms, hotels, restaurants, public premises, theatres, cinemas and the like; special furniture for shops such as counters, display cases, shelves; furniture for offices, laboratories, churches, schools and restaurants.

The manufacture of other furniture includes the manufacture of furniture for gardens and houses (such as for bedrooms and living rooms) as well as finishing work such as upholstery, spraying, painting or French polishing.

This NACE division is composed of four classes organised into one group:

  • the manufacture of office and shop furniture (Class 31.01);
  • the manufacture of kitchen furniture (Class 31.02);
  • the manufacture of mattresses (Class 31.03);
  • the manufacture of other furniture (Class 31.09).

The information presented in this article excludes the manufacture of soft furnishings such as pillows, cushions and quilts (these are covered within textile manufacturing, Division 13), the manufacture of seats for transport equipment (included as part of the manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers and the manufacture of other transport equipment, Divisions 29 and 30) and furniture installation (which forms part of specialised construction activities, Division 43).

See also

Further Eurostat information

Publications

Main tables

Database

SBS - industry and construction (sbs_ind_co)
Annual detailed enterprise statistics - industry and construction (sbs_na_ind)
Annual detailed enterprise statistics for industry (NACE Rev. 2 B-E) (sbs_na_ind_r2)
SMEs - Annual enterprise statistics by size class - industry and construction (sbs_sc_ind)
Industry by employment size class (NACE Rev. 2 B-E) (sbs_sc_ind_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 and figures (MS Excel)

Other information

External links

Notes

  1. Excluding Ireland, Greece and Malta.