Eurostat

The “Business services statistics” (BS) collection contains harmonised statistics on business services. BS is a driver of the knowledge-based economy and their labour-intensive nature has attracted interest in their potential as providers of new jobs in the future. Contributing to the recent increase in the demand for business services, the growing trend in outsourcing has seen many enterprises use service providers for non-core professional activities. Technological progress and the Internet are also important factors which have provided new production possibilities and new modes of supply. Due to its growing importance, BS data are collected since 2000 reference year. The data were collected under Gentlemen agreement until 2007 reference year and from 2008 onwards it become part of the regular mandatory annual data collection of SBS. The BS’s data requirements before 2008 reference year included more variables, but data is available only for a small number of countries. The following variables are available until 2007 reference year:Number of enterprisesTurnover or gross premiums writtenValue added at factor costPersonnel costsNumber of persons employedNumber of employeesNumber of part-time employees The “Turnover or gross premiums written” variable is broken down by product and residence of client. In addition, there is information on the turnover shares of product and client specialised enterprises. The statistics on “Turnover by product” permits analyses on each product's relative importance in the turnover, consistency of product level statistics and product specialisation. On the other hand, information on “Turnover by client” enables analyses on type and location of client and client specialisation. The economic variables make it possible to extend the analysis to productivity and personnel cost issues. From 2008 onwards, the BS’s data requirements are only for variable “Turnover” broken down by products and by type of residence of client. The majority of the data is collected annually by National Statistical Institutes (NSIs) by means of statistical surveys, business registers or from various administrative sources.

The “Business services statistics” (BS) collection contains harmonised statistics on business services. BS is a driver of the knowledge-based economy and their labour-intensive nature has attracted interest in their potential as providers of new jobs in the future. Contributing to the recent increase in the demand for business services, the growing trend in outsourcing has seen many enterprises use service providers for non-core professional activities. Technological progress and the Internet are also important factors which have provided new production possibilities and new modes of supply. Due to its growing importance, BS data are collected since 2000 reference year. The data were collected under Gentlemen agreement until 2007 reference year and from 2008 onwards it become part of the regular mandatory annual data collection of SBS. The BS’s data requirements before 2008 reference year included more variables, but data is available only for a small number of countries. The following variables are available until 2007 reference year:Number of enterprisesTurnover or gross premiums writtenValue added at factor costPersonnel costsNumber of persons employedNumber of employeesNumber of part-time employees The “Turnover or gross premiums written” variable is broken down by product and residence of client. In addition, there is information on the turnover shares of product and client specialised enterprises. The statistics on “Turnover by product” permits analyses on each product's relative importance in the turnover, consistency of product level statistics and product specialisation. On the other hand, information on “Turnover by client” enables analyses on type and location of client and client specialisation. The economic variables make it possible to extend the analysis to productivity and personnel cost issues. From 2008 onwards, the BS’s data requirements are only for variable “Turnover” broken down by products and by type of residence of client. The majority of the data is collected annually by National Statistical Institutes (NSIs) by means of statistical surveys, business registers or from various administrative sources.