EMPLOYMENT IN THE MARKET ECONOMY IN ... - Eurostat - Europa

Chapter 1— Employment and value-added
These two countries apart, business services was the
second largest sector of employment in all EU15 countries.
In all of the new Member States, except for the
Czech Republic and Estonia, on the other hand, transport
and communications employed more people,
probably reflecting the less developed nature of business
services.
Hotels and restaurants were a particularly important
source of employment in Cyprus (30% of total market
services), Malta (22%) and Ireland (21%), though in
each case, apart from Cyprus, the number employed
was relatively small in relation to working-age population.
Division of value-added between services
Business services and transport and communication
sectors accounted for a larger share of value-added
than employment in most countries. In particular, the
specific features of the real estate and renting sector
which generates significant value-added with a limited
work force tends to distort the overall distribution
among market service sectors. The sector has been
therefore excluded from business services (business
services represent 32% of total market service
value-added after adjustment against 38% before).
The reverse was true for distributive trades and more
particularly for hotels and restaurants, where the
value-added generated was relatively small.
Stability of SBS data in market services
A comparison of the SBS data for employment between
the two years 2000 and 2001, as in the case of industry,
provides a test of the consistency of the statistics. In the
case of market services, however, the number employed
increased by around 2% in the EU15 between these two
years according to the SBS. National accounts data
show much the same increase, so reinforcing confidence
in the statistics. Taken together, employment in
market services grew in all countries between the two
years, except in Finland where employment fell by under
1% (Table 9).
Growth in employment was particularly high in business
services. This is in line with other data sources (the LFS in
particular) which indicate that these services have been
a major source of job growth for the past decade or more.
Employment in services by detailed sector
At the NACE division level (2-digit code), over 20% of
those employed in market services in 2001 worked in
retailing (NACE 52) in most EU countries. The proportion
was in general relatively large in the new Member
States where other services tend to be less developed
(Table 10). In Latvia and Lithuania, therefore, as well
as Romania and Bulgaria, the figure was close to 30%.
In the majority of countries, retailing accounted for
over half of those employed in the distributive trades.
The share employed in wholesaling, however, varied
significantly between countries — from over 20% in
Slovakia to 10% in the UK — reflecting differences in
distribution arrangements and, in some degree, in the
average size of retailers (large retailers tending to purchase
goods directly from manufacturers rather than
through wholesalers).
The division of employment between sectors within
business services also varies, in this case partly reflecting
the level of development of the sector. Computer
and related activities accounted for 4% of
overall employment in market services in the EU15 in
2001, but for 8% in Sweden and 6% in Finland, while in
Spain the share was only 2% and in Portugal 1%. The
share was similarly small in most of the new Member
States. It was largest in the Czech Republic and
Slovakia (3%) but still below the EU average (Table
11). Accounting, consultancy and legal services were
responsible for 7–8% of total employment in market
service in the three Benelux countries, Sweden and
the UK, but for only 1–2% in Lithuania, Latvia and
Slovakia as well as in Bulgaria and Romania. Some
9–10% of market service employment was in agencies
specialising in labour recruitment and the provision of
personnel in each of the three Benelux countries, but
very little at all in the new Member States as well as in
Sweden and Ireland. (It should be noted that workers
employed through such agencies are classified to this
sector in the SBS rather than to the sector in which they
actually work.)
Value-added in services by detailed sector
The division of value-added between detailed sectors
within market services follows a similar pattern to that of
employment, with the main exception that real estate and
rental activities account for a much larger share of
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