1. (an exercise for the reference year 2012)
Meeting of
Task Force on Small and Medium Sized Enterprise Data (SMED)
24 June 2015, 10:00-17:00
Breakdown of the enterprises by persons employed and turnover and on the basis of the control
(an exercise for the reference year 2012)
Giampiero Siesto

2. Preliminary observations
Data produced in this work, are obtained by combining register/survey sources for the reference year 2012 and can’t be circulated outside of the task force meeting ;
The availability of a multidimensional micro data matrix (FrameSBS), containing the Business Register variables and the economic variables for all the SBS population units, permit to apply other breakdowns on the enterprises in:
Independent ;
At national control ;
At foreign control ;
The analysis is made by disaggregating the enterprises on the basis of persons employed and turnover in the following manner:
Micro
Small
Medium
Large
without any consideration on the balance sheet total and the relationship to other enterprises due to lack of information.
dependent 2

3. Definition of the enterprises3

4. FrameSBS
In the year 2012 Italian enterprises in the industrial and services sectors (sections B to S, excluding sections K and O and division 94) produced value added for around 690 billion euros.
The enterprises were 4.4 millions and employed 16.1 million persons (11.2 million employees). The average enterprises size was 3.7 persons employed.
The Italian productive structure is based on the enterprises with 0-9 persons employed: they represents 95.2% of the active enterprises, 47.5% of persons employed and 30.8% of the total value added;
The enterprises with 250 or more persons employed, although represents only 0.1% of the total enterprises, employs 19.4% of person employed and accounted for 31.5% of the total value added. 4

5. 5

6. Transition matrix from the SBS classification of the enterprises to a classification based on the persons employed and turnover
Considering the size classes of persons employed used for the SBS Regulation and introducing the SMEs definition of the EC, with the limits before described, we can obtain the following diagram of flows:
Where:
The large enterprises, obtained as residual applying the SMEs definition, are more than double respecting of the SBS data and the reason is explained by the following flows:
- 288 enterprises comes from the size class 0-9 persons employed ;
- 860 enterprises comes from the size class persons employed ;
enterprises comes from the size class persons employed. 6

7. The dependent SMEs are 4.5% in average ;
Share of dependent SMEs out of the total of the enterprises by section Nace Rev.2
The dependent SMEs are 4.5% in average ;
High shares of dependent SMEs are in Nace B (Mining and quarrying; 23,0%), D (Electricity, gas, steam supply and air conditioning supply; 48,4%), E (Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities; 20,5%), L (Real estate activities; 15,5%) and J (Information and communication; 10,0%). 7

8. Share of persons employed by enterprises type and section Nace Rev.2
The dependent SMEs absorb 13,0% of the total of persons employed ;
High shares of persons employed in the dependent SMEs are in Nace B (Mining and quarrying; 23,9%), E (Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities; 26,8%), C (Manifacturing; 20,4%) and J (Information and communication; 22,6%). 8

9. Share of turnover by enterprises type and section Nace Rev.2
The dependent SMEs absorb 16,4% of the total of turnover ;
High shares of turnover in the dependent SMEs are in Nace L (Real estate activities; 40,7%), E (Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities; 30,7%), P (Education; 27,5%) and F (construction; 21,8%). 9

10. The dependent SMEs absorb 17,8% of the total of value added ;
Share of value added at factor cost by enterprises type and section Nace Rev.2
The dependent SMEs absorb 17,8% of the total of value added ;
High shares of value added in the dependent SMEs are in Nace L (Real estate activities; 36,5%), R (Arts, entertainment and recreation; 31,7%), E (Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities; 29,7%), P (Education; 23,9%) and C (Manifacturing; 21,7%). 10

11. Conclusion
The percentage contribute of the SMEs on the total is lower respected to a size class persons employed (SBS):
The dependent SMEs are not so relevant in terms of enterprises (4,5% of the total) but are important in terms of persons employed (13,0%) and even more in terms of turnover (16,4%) and value added (17,8%). 11

12. Conclusion
The classification of the enterprises on the basis of persons employed and turnover could have a heavy impact on the joint treatment of confidentiality in accordance with the SBS rules and might be incompatible to confidentiality determined considering the size classes based only on persons employed. The treatment of confidentiality would be too complex and the risk of breaking confidentiality very high, especially for a very detailed breakdown in terms of economic activity.
The availability in Italy of the multidimensional micro data (FrameSBS) with many SBS variables, allows quite easily to perform certain processing linking the enterprises by code but in most NSI the information available from the BR is just the number of persons employed, number of employees and perhaps turnover.
Built information on SMEs starting from the sample data could be very complex (it would be an additional domain of estimates) and the final estimates could be not consistent with the SBS figures.
Besides, the time needed to produce BR by group and on the basis of the control is wider than that required to produce on time the series for the SBS Regulation. 12