Business in Ireland 2014 outlines key statistics for the Irish business economy. Business Demography data was used to analyse the number of enterprises and employment across five sectors: Industry, Construction, Distribution, Services and Financial & Insurance. This data was combined with the Structural Business surveys, which are run annually by CSO.
| 14.1 Overview of the Business Economy, 2014 | |||
| Enterprises | Turnover | Persons employed | |
| Industry | 16,497 | €127bn | 210,545 |
| Construction | 47,349 | €14bn | 99,860 |
| Distribution | 45,618 | €133bn | 336,866 |
| Services | 122,191 | €186bn | 652,365 |
| Financial & Insurance | 6,594 | €55bn | 96,460 |
| Total Business Economy | 238,249 | €516bn | 1,396,096 |
| Source: CSO | |||
In 2014, the business economy in Ireland was worth €516bn and employed 1,396,096 persons in 238,249 enterprises.
The Services sector, which includes communications companies and accommodation, had the largest number of enterprises 122,191.
The Construction and Distribution sectors reported 47,349 and 45,618 enterprises respectively. Industry had 16,497 enterprises while the smallest number of enterprises 6,594, was in the Financial & Insurance field.
| For long labels below use to display on multiple lines | Number of enterprises |
|---|---|
| Industry | 16497 |
| Construction | 47349 |
| Distribution | 45618 |
| Services | 122191 |
| Financial and Insurance | 6594 |
| Industry | Construction | Distribution | Services | Financial and Insurance | |
| Turnover by sector- 2014 | 127.4 | 14.2 | 133.2 | 185.8 | 55.4 |
The Services sector also generated the most turnover and contributed €186bn to the economy.
The Distribution sector, which includes wholesale and retail businesses, had a turnover of €133bn; this was closely followed by the Industrial sector which had turnover of €127bn.
The Financial & Insurance sector generated €55bn turnover and the smallest sector in the business economy in Ireland in 2014 was Construction with turnover of €14bn.
| Industry | Construction | Distribution | Services | Financial and Insurance | |
| Number of persons engaged by sector | 210545 | 99860 | 336866 | 652365 | 96460 |
The Services sector also dominated employment figures with 652,365 persons employed.
Distribution enterprises provided employment for 336,866 persons.
The Industrial sector which includes manufacturing had 210,545 persons engaged.
The business sectors with the lowest number of persons employed in 2014 were Construction with 99,860 and the Financial & Insurance sector, which includes banking, with 96,460 persons employed.
| SMEs (<250) | Large (250+) | |
| Industry | 98762 | 313139 |
| Construction | 55502 | 63025 |
| Distribution | 51925 | 57885 |
| Services | 62244 | 153654 |
| 0 | 0 | |
| All Sectors | 63363 | 169439 |
Gross Value Added (GVA) per person engaged across all sectors averaged €169,439 for Large enterprises and €63,363 for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
Large Industrial enterprises reported the highest GVA per person engaged at €313,139 for 2014.
The lowest GVA per person engaged was in Distribution enterprises with less than 250 employees, at €51,925.
| For long labels below use to display on multiple lines | GVA by size class |
|---|---|
| Micro (<10) | 24.3 |
| Small (10-49) | 13.1 |
| Medium (50-249) | 12.2 |
| Large (250+) | 50.4 |
Large enterprises which employ more than 250 persons generated just over half of all GVA.
Small and Medium enterprises combined accounted for just over a further 25% of GVA and the remaining 24% was generated by Micro enterprises that employ less than 10 persons per enterprise.
| 14.3 Contribution of the 50 largest enterprises by GVA, 2014 | ||
| Unit | Total Business Economy1 | |
| Business Economy | ||
| Turnover | €m | 460,555 |
| Gross value added | €m | 120,307 |
| Gross operating surplus | €m | 69,058 |
| Persons engaged | No. | 1,299,636 |
| Contribution of Top 50 Enterprises | ||
| Turnover | % | 29.2 |
| Gross value added | % | 40.3 |
| Gross operating surplus | % | 62.6 |
| Persons engaged | % | 6.4 |
| 1 Excludes Financial & Insurance activities | ||
| Source: CSO | ||
| Persons Engaged | Turnover | |
| Industry | 21 | 52.4 |
| Construction | 9.3 | 17.5 |
| Distribution | 18.5 | 28.3 |
| Services | 9.2 | 43.4 |
| 0 | 0 | |
| Total Business Economy | 6.4 | 29.2 |
The Top 50 enterprises in Ireland accounted for 29% of all Turnover but just over 6% of persons engaged.
| 14.4 Breakdown of personnel costs in the total business economy1 by size class, 2014 | ||||
| Unit | SMEs(<250) | Large (250+) | Total | |
| Personnel costs | €m | 34,471 | 16,781 | 51,251 |
| Wages & salaries | €m | 30,426 | 14,333 | 44,759 |
| Social security costs | €m | 4,045 | 2,448 | 6,493 |
| Social security costs as a % of personnel costs | % | 11.7 | 14.6 | 12.7 |
| Wages and salaries per employee | €uro | 35,280 | 43,316 | 39,085 |
| 1The total business economy includes NACE Rev.2 (excluding K) and R92, R93, S95 and S96 | ||||
| Source: CSO | ||||
The business economy in Ireland generated €45bn in wages and salaries and a further €6.5bn in social security contributions.
The average spend on wages & salaries per employee is €35,250 in Small & Medium enterprises.
In Large enterprises, which employ in excess of 250 persons, typically spend is in excess of €43,300 on wages & salaries per employee.
| 14.5 Number of persons engaged in SMEs by sector 2008 - 2014 | ||||||
| Year | Construction | Services | Distribution | Industry | Financial | Total |
| 2008 | 177,310 | 451,650 | 274,508 | 140,420 | 31,307 | 1,075,195 |
| 2009 | 126,642 | 408,133 | 252,140 | 125,217 | 28,932 | 941,064 |
| 2010 | 99,911 | 397,493 | 242,300 | 115,052 | 29,074 | 883,830 |
| 2011 | 90,793 | 399,816 | 241,205 | 113,755 | 30,359 | 875,928 |
| 2012 | 85,667 | 408,920 | 238,959 | 110,628 | 30,244 | 874,418 |
| 2013 | 86,494 | 419,112 | 239,689 | 109,688 | 30,653 | 885,636 |
| 2014 | 92,289 | 438,666 | 243,303 | 114,642 | 31,084 | 919,984 |
| Source: CSO | ||||||
| SMEs (<250) | Large (250+) | |
| Active enterprises | 99.8 | 0.2 |
| Persons engaged | 68.9 | 31.1 |
| Turnover | 56.1 | 43.9 |
| GVA | 49.6 | 50.4 |
SMEs accounted for 99.8% of all enterprises and 69% of persons engaged.
They also generated over 56% of all Turnover and 50% of GVA.
The number of persons engaged by SMEs declined by 14% between 2008 and 2014. The largest decrease, 48%, was in the Construction sector while the smallest, 0.7%, was reported by Financial enterprises.
| Persons Engaged | Active Enterprises | |
| Mining & quarrying | 4058 | 411 |
| Manufacturing | 189966 | 14628 |
| Electricity, gas etc | 8496 | 483 |
| Water supply etc | 8025 | 975 |
| Construction | 99860 | 47349 |
| Motor trade | 31023 | 8259 |
| Wholesale trade | 93564 | 13062 |
| Retail trade | 212279 | 24297 |
| Transportation and storage | 91985 | 24595 |
| Accommodation and food | 161097 | 17790 |
| Information and communication | 82010 | 13687 |
| Financial and Insurance | 96460 | 6593 |
| Real estate | 22775 | 11912 |
| Professional, scientific etc | 120245 | 38795 |
| Administrative and support | 112448 | 15412 |
Retail trade accounted for the largest number of persons engaged at 212,279.
Mining and quarrying accounted for the least amount of persons engaged at 4,058.
| 14.7 Structural business statistics by sector and nationality of ownership, 2014 | |||||||
| Irish-owned | Foreign-owned affiliates | All enterprises | |||||
| Owned by EU multinationals | Owned by non-EU multinationals | Total foreign-owned affiliates | |||||
| Number of enterpises | |||||||
| Industry1 | 15,910 | 321 | 266 | 587 | 16,497 | ||
| of which; Manufacturing | 14,145 | 240 | 243 | 483 | 14,628 | ||
| Construction | 47,200 | 99 | 50 | 149 | 47,349 | ||
| Distribution | 44,622 | 565 | 431 | 996 | 45,618 | ||
| Services (excl. Financials) | 137,871 | 943 | 1,099 | 2,042 | 139,913 | ||
| All sectors | 245,603 | 1,928 | 1,846 | 3,774 | 249,377 | ||
| Number of persons engaged | |||||||
| Industry1 | 127,990 | 24,102 | 58,453 | 82,555 | 210,545 | ||
| of which; Manufacturing | 109,959 | 22,187 | 57,820 | 80,007 | 189,966 | ||
| Construction | 93,555 | 2,489 | 3,816 | 6,305 | 99,860 | ||
| Distribution | 250,594 | 53,333 | 32,939 | 86,272 | 336,866 | ||
| Services (excl. Financials) | 511,192 | 47,835 | 93,338 | 141,173 | 652,365 | ||
| All sectors | 983,331 | 127,759 | 188,546 | 316,305 | 1,299,636 | ||
| Turnover (€millions) | |||||||
| Industry1 | 34,494 | 15,139 | 77,734 | 92,873 | 127,366 | ||
| of which; Manufacturing | 27,347 | 13,617 | 76,184 | 89,801 | 117,149 | ||
| Construction | 12,929 | 572 | 707 | 1,279 | 14,208 | ||
| Distribution | 81,756 | 18,429 | 32,968 | 51,397 | 133,153 | ||
| Services (excl. Financials) | 88,565 | 13,661 | 83,602 | 97,263 | 185,828 | ||
| All sectors | 217,744 | 47,801 | 195,010 | 242,812 | 460,555 | ||
| GVA (€millions) | |||||||
| Industry1 | 11,349 | 4,041 | 25,964 | 30,005 | 41,353 | ||
| of which; Manufacturing | 7,510 | 3,717 | 25,652 | 29,369 | 36,880 | ||
| Construction | 5,074 | 212 | 313 | 525 | 5,599 | ||
| Distribution | 10,712 | 2,623 | 4,714 | 7,338 | 18,049 | ||
| Services (excl. Financials) | 30,534 | 4,583 | 20,187 | 24,771 | 55,305 | ||
| All sectors | 57,668 | 11,460 | 51,179 | 62,638 | 120,307 | ||
| 1Industry covers NACE Rev.2 (05-39) of which Manufacturing (10-33), Construction (41-43), Distribution (45-47) and Services covers NACE Rev. 2 H to N (excluding K) and R92, R93, S95, S96. | |||||||
| Source: CSO | |||||||
14.7a Irish MNEs abroad and foreign MNEs in Ireland, 2014
Foreign multinationals in Ireland employed just over 316,300 persons and generated €242.8bn in Turnover.
Foreign-owned enterprises accounted for 52.7% of total Turnover and 52.1% of total GVA in the Irish business economy.
The Distribution and Manufacturing sectors accounted for 85% of employment in Irish-owned affiliates abroad.
The average Turnover per person engaged in Irish-owned foreign affiliates was €322.5k.
Turnover per person engaged in Irish-owned foreign affiliates was the highest in the Services sector and lowest in Manufacturing.
14.7b Employment in Irish affilates abroad
Of the 308,000 persons engaged in irish affiliates abroad, over 100,000 were employed in the US where Irish-owned enterprises generated Turnover of €27.2bn.
UK based Irish affiliates employed almost 86,200 people and generated €37.6bn in Turnover.
| Services (ex. Finance) | Distribution | Construction | Manufacturing | |
| United Kingdom | 55.2 | 17.1 | 9.4 | 18.3 |
| France | 47 | 20 | 10.2 | 22.8 |
| Spain | 44.1 | 23.6 | 8.2 | 24.1 |
| Italy | 47.8 | 0.4 | 10.2 | 41.6 |
| Germany | 39.7 | 18.1 | 6 | 36.2 |
| Ireland | 46.6 | 16.6 | 3.9 | 32.9 |
The Services sector accounted for 46.6% of total GVA in Ireland in 2013.
The United Kingdom recorded the highest percentage of total GVA for the Services sector at 55.2%.
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