Archive:Manufacture of wearing apparel statistics - NACE Rev. 2
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- Data from April 2013. Most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.
This article presents an overview of statistics for wearing apparel manufacturing in the European Union (EU), as covered by NACE Rev. 2 Division 14.
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(% share of sectoral total) - Source: Eurostat (sbs_na_ind_r2)
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(% share of sectoral total) - Source: Eurostat (sbs_sc_ind_r2)
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Main statistical findings
Structural profile
There were 129.4 thousand enterprises classified to the wearing apparel manufacturing (Division 14) sector in the EU-27 in 2010. Together they employed 1.06 million persons, equivalent to 0.8 % of all persons employed in the non-financial business economy (Sections B to J and L to N and Division 95) and 3.5 % of the manufacturing (Section C) workforce. They generated EUR 19.2 billion of value added which was 0.3 % of the non-financial business economy total and 1.2 % of the manufacturing total.
The apparent labour productivity of the EU-27’s wearing apparel manufacturing sector in 2010 was EUR 18.3 thousand per person employed: this was the lowest apparent labour productivity ratio recorded among the manufacturing NACE divisions and the second lowest of all divisions within the non-financial business economy, higher only than for food and beverage service activities (Division 56). Furthermore, average personnel costs within the EU-27’s wearing apparel manufacturing sector were also very low, EUR 14.6 thousand per employee, which was not only the lowest among all manufacturing NACE divisions, but also the lowest across all of the NACE divisions within the non-financial business economy. For comparison, the non-financial business economy averages for apparent labour productivity and average personnel costs were EUR 44.8 thousand per person employed and EUR 30.9 thousand per employee respectively, more than double their levels for wearing apparel manufacturing.
The low values of apparent labour productivity and average personnel costs for wearing apparel manufacturing may, in part, be due to a high incidence of part-time work, as both of these indicators are compiled on the basis of a simple head count of persons. By contrast, the wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio is calculated as a percentage, showing the relative size of these two ratios to each other, and so reducing substantially the impact of part-time employment. The wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio for the EU-27’s wearing apparel manufacturing sector in 2010 was 125.0 %. Although this was below both the manufacturing (148.0 %) and non-financial business economy (144.8 %) averages, the extent to which it was below these two benchmarks was much less than for the earlier mentioned indicators that are calculated on the basis of a head count. The wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio for wearing apparel manufacturing was only the fourth lowest across all of the manufacturing NACE divisions and not among even the 10 lowest across all non-financial business economy NACE divisions.
The gross operating rate (the relation between the gross operating surplus and turnover) for the EU-27’s wearing apparel manufacturing sector was 7.7 % in 2010, which was below, but relatively close to the manufacturing average of 9.0 %.
Sectoral analysis
Nearly 9 in every 10 enterprises (88.1 %) within the EU-27’s wearing apparel manufacturing sector in 2010 were classified to the manufacture of wearing apparel, except fur apparel (Group 14.1), with most of the remainder classified to the manufacture of knitted and crocheted apparel (Group 14.3); the third subsector within this sector was the manufacture of articles of fur (Group 14.2). The manufacture of wearing apparel, except fur apparel also dominated the sector in terms of value added and employment — see Figure 1 — with around 85 % of the sectoral total for both of these measures.
The very low apparent labour productivity figure for the whole of the EU-27’s wearing apparel manufacturing sector was pulled downwards by the manufacture of wearing apparel, except fur apparel where an average of EUR 18.0 thousand of value added was generated per person employed. This was the lowest apparent labour productivity ratio across all of the manufacturing NACE groups and the sixth lowest among the 192 NACE groups within the non-financial business economy for which data for 2010 are available. The manufacture of articles of fur and the manufacture of knitted and crocheted apparel recorded somewhat higher apparent labour productivity ratios, but still well below the manufacturing and non-financial business economy averages; these were the second and fourth lowest ratios respectively among the 86 manufacturing NACE groups for which data are available.
A similar situation can be observed for EU-27 average personnel costs per employee, which ranged in 2010 from EUR 14.2 thousand for the manufacture of wearing apparel, except fur apparel, through EUR 17.2 thousand for the manufacture of knitted and crocheted apparel, to EUR 20.0 thousand for the manufacture of articles of fur. These values were well below the manufacturing average, and all three subsectors had average personnel costs per employee that were ranked within the bottom five NACE groups across the whole of manufacturing.
EU-27 wage-adjusted labour productivity ratios for 2010 show that the ratio for the manufacture of articles of fur (100.0 %) was well below the sectoral average (125.0 %) and that the apparent labour productivity for the manufacture of articles of fur was equal to average personnel costs; this was the lowest wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio for all 90 manufacturing NACE groups with data available in 2010. The manufacture of knitted and crocheted apparel recorded the highest wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio (130.0 %) among the three subsectors, although this was still well below the manufacturing average (148.0 %).
The range in the gross operating rate between the three subsectors was not particularly large (3.6 percentage points difference between the highest and lowest rates). Nevertheless, the EU-27 gross operating rate for the manufacture of wearing apparel except fur apparel (7.4 %) was below the manufacturing average (9.0 %) in 2010, while the rate for the manufacture of knitted and crocheted articles (9.3 %) was between the manufacturing and non-financial business economy (10.1 %) averages, and that for the manufacture of articles of fur (11.0 %, 2009 data) was above the non-financial business economy average.
Country analysis
As for the manufacture of textiles, Italy was the largest EU Member State (in value added terms) in the wearing apparel manufacturing sector in 2010. Italy’s share of the EU-27’s value added was 35.5 % in 2010: Italian shares in the three subsectors ranged from 29.5 % in the small subsector of the manufacture of articles of fur up to a high of 41.2 % for the knitted and crocheted apparel manufacturing subsector. Romania generated 4.2 % of the EU-27’s value added in the wearing apparel manufacturing sector and Bulgaria 1.9 %, in both cases the highest shares that these Member States recorded in any of the non-financial business economy NACE divisions (with data available) in 2010; on the same basis this was also the second most specialised sector for Lithuania, Portugal and Italy.
The Italian wearing apparel manufacturing workforce of 226.4 thousand persons was the largest within the EU-27, a 21.4 % share of the total; this was followed by Romania (155.5 thousand persons), Poland (110.9 thousand persons) and Bulgaria (106.0 thousand persons). The large differences in the Italian share of activity within the EU depending upon whether value added or employment is analysed may, in part, reflect the focus of Italian clothes manufacturers on higher value products (including many designer and luxury brands) as opposed to the more labour-intensive stages of clothing production and mass-market products, which have become more frequently located in eastern European countries and further afield.
In value added terms, the relative importance of the wearing apparel manufacturing sector was highest in Bulgaria, as this sector contributed 2.3 % of the Bulgarian non-financial business economy’s value added in 2010. The next most specialised EU Member States were Romania (1.8 % of non-financial business economy value added), Lithuania and Portugal (both 1.3 %), and Italy (1.0 %); Croatia was also specialised in this sector, as wearing apparel manufacturing contributed 0.9 % of Croatian non-financial business economy value added.
As already noted, the wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio for wearing apparel manufacturing for the EU-27 was somewhat below the non-financial business economy average in 2010 and this situation was repeated in all of the Member States for which data are available, except in Denmark. In four Member States — the Netherlands, Ireland, Slovakia and Cyprus — ratios below 100 % were recorded (see Table 4b), indicating that apparent labour productivity per person employed was lower than average personnel costs per employee in 2010.
Size class analysis
The EU-27’s wearing apparel manufacturing sector was one of eight manufacturing NACE divisions where small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs, employing fewer than 250 persons) employed more than three quarters of the workforce in 2010. SMEs employed 79.2 % of the wearing apparel manufacturing sector’s workforce and generated 73.9 % of total value added. This was the fifth highest SME share of employment and value added in 2010 for any of the manufacturing NACE divisions. Due to the lower sectoral share in value added terms, SMEs had a relatively low apparent labour productivity: EUR 17.1 thousand per person employed compared with an average for large enterprises (employing 250 or more persons) of EUR 23.0 thousand per person employed.
The value added shares of small (employing 10 to 49 persons) and medium-sized enterprises (employing 50 to 249 persons) within the EU-27’s wearing apparel manufacturing sector were both higher than the share of large enterprises in this sector: such a situation occurred in only five other manufacturing NACE divisions in 2010.
The value added share of SMEs in the wearing apparel manufacturing sector exceeded four fifths in nine of the EU Member States and reached 100 % in Denmark, Ireland, Cyprus, Netherlands and Sweden. Among those Member States with data available, Germany and Romania were the only ones where SMEs failed to provide three fifths of sectoral value added. As noted above, small enterprises played a particularly strong role in the wearing apparel manufacturing sector and their share of sectoral value added peaked at 44.4 % in Lithuania. Micro enterprises (employing fewer than 10 persons) provided more than two fifths of the value added generated in the wearing apparel manufacturing sector in four of the Member States — Greece (2009 data), Cyprus, Sweden and the Netherlands —, which was more than double the average contribution made by micro enterprises across the whole of the EU-27 (17.0 %).
Data sources and availability
The analysis presented in this article is based on the main dataset for structural business statistics (SBS) and size class data, all of which are published annually.
The main series provides information for each EU Member State as well as a number of non-member countries at a detailed level according to the activity classification NACE. Data are available for a wide range of variables.
In structural business statistics, size classes are generally defined by the number of persons employed. A limited set of the standard structural business statistics variables (for example, the number of enterprises, turnover, persons employed and value added) are analysed by size class, mostly down to the three-digit (group) level of NACE. The main size classes used in this article for presenting the results are:
- small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): with 1 to 249 persons employed, further divided into;
- micro enterprises: with less than 10 persons employed;
- small enterprises: with 10 to 49 persons employed;
- medium-sized enterprises: with 50 to 249 persons employed;
- large enterprises: with 250 or more persons employed.
Context
This article presents an overview of statistics for the wearing apparel manufacturing sector in the EU, as covered by NACE Rev. 2 Division 14. This division includes ready-to-wear or made-to-measure tailoring in all materials, for example, leather, fabric, knitted and crocheted fabrics (such as socks, tights, pullovers, cardigans and similar articles). All items of clothing are included (for example, outerwear and underwear), for men, women or children, for all purposes (work, sports or casual clothing) and accessories such as gloves, hats and ties. Also included is the manufacture of articles of fur, including wearing apparel and clothing accessories, rugs and industrial polishing cloths.
This NACE division is composed of three groups:
- the manufacture of wearing apparel (Group 14.1);
- the manufacture of articles of fur (Group 14.2);
- the manufacture of knitted and crocheted apparel (Group 14.3).
Excluded are the dressing and dyeing of fur and the manufacture of footwear (which form part of the manufacture of leather and related products, Division 15), sports and safety headgear as well as fire-resistant and protective safety clothing (which form part of other manufacturing, Division 32).
See also
- Manufacturing
- Other analyses of the business economy by NACE Rev. 2 sector
- Structural business statistics introduced
Further Eurostat information
Publications
- European business - facts and figures (online publication)
- Key figures on European Business – with a special feature section on SMEs – 2011 edition
Main tables
Database
- SBS - industry and construction (sbs_ind_co)
- Annual detailed enterprise statistics - industry and construction (sbs_na_ind)
- Annual detailed enterprise statistics for industry (NACE Rev. 2 B-E) (sbs_na_ind_r2)
- SMEs - Annual enterprise statistics by size class - industry and construction (sbs_sc_ind)
- Industry by employment size class (NACE Rev. 2 B-E) (sbs_sc_ind_r2)
- Annual detailed enterprise statistics - industry and construction (sbs_na_ind)
- SBS - regional data - all activities (sbs_r)
- SBS data by NUTS 2 regions and NACE Rev. 2 (from 2008 onwards) (sbs_r_nuts06_r2)
Dedicated section
Source data for tables and figures (MS Excel)
Other information
- Decision 1578/2007/EC of 11 December 2007 on the Community Statistical Programme 2008 to 2012
- Regulation 295/2008 of 11 March 2008 concerning structural business statistics