Archive:Furniture production statistics - NACE Rev. 1.1
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- Data from January 2009. Most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.
This article belongs to a set of statistical articles which analyse the structure, development and characteristics of the various economic activities in the European Union (EU). According to the statistical classification of economic activities in the EU (NACE Rev 1.1), the present article covers furniture manufacturing, corresponding to NACE Group 36.1, which is part of the furniture, jewellery, musical instruments, sports goods and toys sector. The activities covered in this article include the manufacture of:
- chairs and seats;
- office furniture;
- shop furniture;
- kitchen furniture;
- mattresses.
_Relative_weight_within_furniture_manufacturing,_EU-27,_2006_(%25).PNG)
Main statistical findings
Structural profile
_Structural_profile-_ranking_of_top_five_Member_States_in_terms_of_value_added_and_persons_employed,_2006.PNG)
_Production_of_selected_products,_EU-27,_2007_(1).PNG)
_Expenditure,_productivity_and_profitability,_EU-27,_2006_(1).PNG)
_Main_indicators,_2006_(1).PNG)
In 2006, furniture manufacturing (NACE Group 36.1) consisted of 150.4 thousand enterprises which generated EUR 38.0 billion of value added in the EU-27, equivalent to 71.2 % of the total for furniture and other manufacturing activities (NACE Division 36). There were 1.3 million persons employed in the EU-27’s furniture manufacturing sector, which was 74.8 % of the furniture and other manufacturing activities workforce.
Just less than one quarter of the sector's value added was in the manufacture of chairs and seats (NACE Class 36.11), just under one fifth in the manufacture of other office and shop furniture (NACE Class 36.12), and just over one tenth in the manufacture of other kitchen furniture (NACE Class 36.13). Smaller than these was the manufacture of mattresses (NACE Class 36.15) with just under 5 % of the sector's value added. The miscellaneous grouping of the manufacture of other furniture (NACE Class 36.14) was the largest subsector, with a 42 % share of value added and 52 % of the workforce.
Germany made the largest contribution to EU-27 value added in the furniture manufacturing sector in 2006 followed closely by Italy, with the United Kingdom and Spain the only other Member States with a double-digit share of EU-27 value added. Italy had the largest workforce, just over 200 thousand persons employed, followed by Germany and Poland. In value added terms, the relative importance of the furniture manufacturing sector was highest in Lithuania in 2006, as furniture manufacturing accounted for 1.7 % of Lithuanian non-financial business economy (NACE Sections C to I and K) value added. Most of the other Member States that joined the EU in 2004 or 2007 were relatively specialised in furniture manufacturing: the only ones that were relatively unspecialised were Cyprus and Hungary. Italy, Denmark, Austria, Portugal and Spain were the only EU-15 Member States where the furniture manufacturing sector's contribution to non-financial business economy value added was above the EU-27 average.
Expenditure and productivity
EU-27 gross tangible investment in furniture manufacturing was valued at EUR 4.1 billion in 2006, equivalent to 10.9 % of the sector's value added. Bulgaria (56.5 %) and Romania (52.4 %) recorded particularly high investment rates for furniture manufacturing in 2006. This sector's expenditure on personnel costs was 23.0 % of all operating expenditure in the EU-27 in 2006, 1.4 times as high as the average share for the non-financial business economy. This high share was achieved despite relatively low average personnel costs of EUR 22.0 thousand per employee in the EU-27’s furniture manufacturing sector, which when combined with apparent labour productivity of EUR 28.2 thousand per person employed, led to a wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio of 128.1 %. In all Member States with data available this ratio for furniture manufacturing was below the average ratio for their non-financial business economies.
Data sources and availability
The main part of the analysis in this article is derived from structural business statistics (SBS), including core, business statistics which are disseminated regularly, as well as information compiled on a multi-yearly basis, and the latest results from development projects.
Other data sources include the PRODCOM statistics on the production of manufactured goods.
Context
The EU’s furniture manufacturing activity draws on a variety of materials to manufacture its products, including wood, metal, leather, glass and synthetic materials; material innovation along with design are key factors within the EU’s furniture activity in the face of competition from countries that are characterised by low labour costs.