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.
Number of active enterprises
There were over 185,500 active enterprises in 2012. Of the fifteen sectors, the largest sector was Construction with almost 33,900 enterprises. Construction is a sector that is characterised by many small enterprises. This was followed by the Professional, Scientific and Technical sector with over 30,300 enterprises.
The sectors with the smallest number of active enterprises were Electricity, Gas, Steam and Air Conditioning Supply with 326 enterprises, Mining and Quarrying with 353 enterprises and Water supply, Sewerage, Waste Management and Remediation Activities with 874 enterprises.
The Distribution sector (Section G), which had just over 42,200 enterprises has been split into three sub sectors, namely Motor (G45), Wholesale (G46) and Retail (G47). The Retail Trade sector was the largest of the three sub sectors with over 22,900 enterprises. The Wholesale Trade sector was considerably lower with almost 12,600 enterprises, while the Motor Trade sector was the smallest part of this group with approximately 6,700 enterprises. See Figure 7.1.
| Active enterprises | |
| Mining & quarrying | 353 |
| Manufacturing | 11999 |
| Electricity, gas etc | 326 |
| Water supply etc | 874 |
| Construction | 33879 |
| Motor trade | 6736 |
| Wholesale trade | 12552 |
| Retail trade | 22922 |
| Transportation & storage | 9937 |
| Accommodation & food | 16279 |
| Information & communication | 10764 |
| Financial & insurance | 5658 |
| Real estate | 11637 |
| Professional, scientific etc | 30325 |
| Administrative & support | 11289 |
Number of persons engaged
The total number of persons engaged across all business sectors was over 1.2 million. The largest employer was the Retail Trade sector with nearly 207,600 persons engaged. This was followed by Manufacturing with almost 176,700 persons engaged, Accommodation and Food Service Activities with nearly 150,400 and Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities with almost 104,700.
The Industry sector which employs over 197,700 encompasses:
Industry is dominated by Manufacturing which employs close to 90% of the persons engaged in that sector. See Figure 7.2
| Persons engaged | |
| Mining & quarrying | 4179 |
| Manufacturing | 176690 |
| Electricity, gas etc | 8958 |
| Water supply etc | 7919 |
| Construction | 76602 |
| Motor trade | 27963 |
| Wholesale trade | 88817 |
| Retail trade | 207586 |
| Transportation & storage | 75944 |
| Accommodation & food | 150364 |
| Information & communication | 70785 |
| Financial & insurance | 96736 |
| Real estate | 22648 |
| Professional, scientific etc | 104652 |
| Administrative & support | 100011 |
Structural business surveys are used to analyse the financial data for the detailed sectors. Turnover and 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 as a percentage of turnover.
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.
Turnover in the detailed sectors
The Manufacturing sector dominated turnover within the business economy with €102.3 billion in sales in 2012 accounting for 30.6% of total turnover. This was followed by Wholesale Trade at €62.1 billion. The Information and Communication sector, which includes publishing activities (e.g. software publishing), broadcasting, telecommunications, computer programming and consultancy and information service activities had a turnover of €56.8 billion while the turnover for Retail Trade was €33.4 billion. These four sectors account for over three quarters of all sales in the Irish business economy. See Figure 7.3
| Turnover | |
| Mining & quarrying | 0.965 |
| Manufacturing | 102.284 |
| Electricity, gas etc | 7.862 |
| Water supply etc | 1.216 |
| Construction | 8.9 |
| Motor trade | 8.236 |
| Wholesale trade | 62.124 |
| Retail trade | 33.447 |
| Transportation & storage | 16.579 |
| Accommodation & food | 7.912 |
| Information & communication | 56.799 |
| Real estate | 1.496 |
| Professional, scientific etc | 13.228 |
| Administrative & support | 10.27 |
| Other services | 3.009 |
GVA in the detailed sectors
Manufacturing again led the way in terms of GVA with €33.9 billion or 37.1% of total GVA in the Irish business economy. This was followed by Information and Communication with €12.5 billion while Wholesale Trade recorded GVA worth €8.8 billion. The Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities and Retail trade sectors reported value added of €6.1 billion and €6.0 billion respectively. See Figure 7.4
| GVA | |
| Mining & quarrying | 0.474 |
| Manufacturing | 33.889 |
| Electricity, gas etc | 3.408 |
| Water supply etc | 0.391 |
| Construction | 3.894 |
| Motor trade | 0.946 |
| Wholesale trade | 8.777 |
| Retail trade | 6.043 |
| Transportation & storage | 5.196 |
| Accommodation & food | 3.034 |
| Information & communication | 12.499 |
| Real estate | 0.847 |
| Professional, scientific etc | 6.091 |
| Administrative & support | 4.387 |
| Other services | 1.5 |
Productivity in the detailed sectors
Gross value added (GVA) per person engaged is a simple measure of labour productivity. Electricity, Gas, Steam and Air Conditioning Supply generated the most GVA per person engaged at over €323,600. The next largest figure was recorded by Manufacturing at over €213,100.
The sector that generated the least GVA per person engaged was Accommodation and Food Service Activities at almost €20,200. Other Services had the second lowest GVA per person engaged at under €28,200 followed by the Retail Trade sector with just over €28,900. Motor Trade also had low GVA per person engaged at over €33,800. See Figure 7.5
| GVA per person engaged | |
| Mining & quarrying | 134493 |
| Manufacturing | 213134 |
| Electricity, gas etc | 323632 |
| Water supply etc | 69822 |
| Construction | 50895 |
| Motor trade | 33818 |
| Wholesale trade | 98479 |
| Retail trade | 28927 |
| Transportation & storage | 68454 |
| Accommodation & food | 20174 |
| Information & communication | 177467 |
| Real estate | 37371 |
| Professional, scientific etc | 58163 |
| Administrative & support | 43759 |
| Other services | 28150 |
Profitability in the detailed sectors
Gross operating surplus 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. Gross operating surplus as a percentage of turnover is a measure of profitability.
Electricity, Gas, Steam and Air Conditioning Supply and was the sector that recorded the highest gross operating surplus as a percentage of turnover at 32.7%. This was followed Real Estate with 28.5% and Mining & Quarrying with 26.1%.
Motor Trade was the sector that recorded the lowest gross operating surplus as a percentage of turnover at 2.3%. Other sectors that recorded low percentages were Wholesale Trade, Retail Trade and Accommodation and Food Service Activities who each recorded a gross operating surplus of between 4.5% and 7.5% of turnover. Other sectors recorded percentages around the average for the total business economy which was 15.6%. See Figure 7.6.
| Gross operating surplus as a percentage of turnover | |
| Mining & quarrying | 26.1 |
| Manufacturing | 25.5 |
| Electricity, gas etc | 32.7 |
| Water supply etc | 14.4 |
| Construction | 22.6 |
| Motor trade | 2.3 |
| Wholesale trade | 7.4 |
| Retail trade | 4.5 |
| Transportation & storage | 10 |
| Accommodation & food | 7 |
| Information & communication | 14.8 |
| Real estate | 28.5 |
| Professional, scientific etc | 14.3 |
| Administrative & support | 13.4 |
| Other services | 16.9 |
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