Construction, structural business statistics, 2008, preliminary figures

From 2007 to 2008, the number of enterprises in the construction industry increased by 2 504, to 44 696 enterprises. These enterprises employed a total of 192 446 persons; an increase of 11.4 per cent from 2007.

Important announcement: Transition to a new industry classification

Starting with the reference year 2008, a new version of the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC2007) is used. Building project developments (housing cooperatives and the development and sale of property) have been included in the building and construction activity. Industries were also broken down in order to make a clearer distinction between the building activity and construction activity. For general information about the transition to the new Standard Industrial Classification click here.

To make the figures quoted in this text comparable with figures from earlier years, building project developments have been excluded from the figures.

Preliminary figures

Preliminary figures for structural statistics are published on enterprise level only. In general, figures for enterprises will show other values than figures for local kind-of-activity units. This is due to the fact that an enterprise registered with its main activity in one industry may have local kind-of-activity units in other industries. The data have not been as thoroughly revised as they will be when the final figures are published in April 2010.

Deviation between preliminary and final figures

Comparisons between preliminary and final figures in 2006 and 2007 show that the final figures for number of enterprises in the construction industry as a total were 0.9 and 2.3 per cent lower than the preliminary figures. The final figures in 2006 and 2007 for turnover were 0.2 and 0.1 per cent higher than preliminary figures.

For employment, the deviation between preliminary and final figures was 0.6 per cent lower in the final figures in 2006 and 2007.

Uncertain gross investment figures

The preliminary figures for gross investment in the construction industry have the greatest uncertainty. The final figures in 2006 and 2007 were 16.0 and 4.6 per cent higher than the preliminary figures. This is due to an improved data basis for estimating final figures.

Tables:

• Table 1 Principal figures for enterprises, by industry group. Final figures 2007 and preliminary figures 2008