The performance of business in Ireland in 2014 was examined using a number of performance indicators. The structural business surveys 1 were used to compile the data.
Labour productivity, personnel costs as a percentage of Gross Value Added (GVA) and enterprise profitability were analysed. The contribution of the 50 largest enterprises, in terms of GVA, was also examined.
GVA represents the value of the goods and services produced, in this case, in the Irish business economy. A simple measure of productivity is to analyse GVA by the number of persons engaged. The relatively large multinational sector in Ireland and the consequent assignment of value added to the Irish economy, can make the interpretation of indicators like GVA per person more difficult.
Care should be taken when looking at the results for Micro sized enterprises. This size class covers enterprises with less than 10 persons engaged. This also includes enterprises that officially have no persons engaged assigned to them, but in some cases have significant economic value. Figure 4.1 highlights the relatively high (when compared to other SMEs) GVA per person engaged for Micro enterprises. In Figure 4.3 we can see that personnel costs relative to GVA are lower for Micro enterprises than for other SMEs, as these enterprises without persons engaged would consequently have no personnel costs.
(1) The surveys used were Census of Industrial Production (CIP), Building and Construction Inquiry (BCI) and Annual Services Inquiry (ASI). Financial and Insurance activities were excluded from this analysis.
