Key figures on European business 2021 by Eurostat

Eurostat has just published the report “Key Figures on European Business 2021“, a new publication which through visuals and short texts gives an overview of the business economy in Europe.

The publication starts with an overview, followed by more detailed analyses on four specific parts of the business economy — industry, construction, distributive trades and other non-financial services, and ends with a chapter on tourism.

Enterprises

In 2018, there were 22.7 million enterprises in the EU-27’s non-financial business economy. Collectively they employed 129.4 million people and created EUR 6 557 billion of wealth as measured by value added at factor cost.

In 2018, the overwhelming majority (98.9 %) of EU-27 businesses were micro or small enterprises employing fewer

than 50 persons.

Their economic weight was lower in terms of their contribution to employment or value added: micro and small enterprises employed half (49.0 %) of the EU-27’s non-financial business economy workforce, while they contributed just over one third (35.8 %) of the value added.

In 2018, there were 40 000 large enterprises (with 250 or more persons employed) in the EU-27’s nonfinancial business economy.

Impact of Covid19 on construction

During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, almost all EU Member States implemented containment measures. Some parts of construction were hit directly by these restrictions (as well as indirectly by falling demand).

Most EU Member States lifted restrictions on outdoor construction activities in late spring / early summer 2020.

The impact of the first wave of the pandemic and its accompanying restrictions can be seen by studying the change in the level of output in early 2020: construction output across the EU-27 in April 2020 was 26 % lower than in February 2020