The broad business sectors that were presented in previous chapters have been broken into fifteen detailed sectors, based on the NACE Rev. 2 sectoral classification. See Appendix 3.

The CSO Structural Business Surveys are used to analyse the financial data for the detailed sectors. Turnover and Gross Value Added (GVA) are presented in absolute terms. GVA per person engaged gives an indication of the productivity of the detailed sectors, while the profitability of the sectors is also analysed using Gross Operating Surplus (GOS) as a percentage of turnover. The variable GOS is broadly analogous to profit and is the balance available to the enterprise which allows it to provide a return to shareholders, to pay taxes and to finance all or part of its investment.

The Financial and Insurance sector is excluded from this section, while the Other Services Activities sector (NACE Rev.2 - R92, R93, S95 and S96) is included. Accordingly, all the measures below for GVA, GOS and productivity relate to the non-financial business economy only (which encompasses the broad sectors of Industry, Services, Distribution & Construction).