Press release dated 15/07/2011

Business and Professional Services Survey 2009

Business and Professional Services accounted for 8.3% of the wealth generated in the Basque Country in 2009

Employment in these sectors accounted for 12.2% of the total number of people employed

Professional and business services, commonly known as services to companies, generated a gross value added of 4879 million euros in 2009 and employed 119,616 people, according to Eustat data.

The contribution of these services to the economy of the Basque Country overall represented 8.3% of the Gross Value Added and 12.2% of employment in 2009.

The value added per person, for the services to companies overall, was 40,786 euros in 2009 and the sales per person stood at 72,295 euros, even though these ratios varied from one branch to another.

Renting activities, with 2.9% of employment of the services to companies, generated 4.4% of the total value added of this sector. The value added per person stood at 62,356 euros and sales per person at 135,712 euros.

Employment-related Activities were at the other end of the scale in terms of value added, as they accounted for 7% of employment and generated 3.8% of the value added, creating a value added of 22,176 euros per person.

As far as volume of sales per person was concerned, it should be pointed out that the Travel Agency sector posted 341,124 euros, while these sales per person came to 25,142 euros in the case of Employment-related Activities.

The branches included in Other Service Activities employed 45,681 people, which accounted for 38.1% of the total. This sector includes labour intensive activities, such as Security Activities, Cleaning Activities, Gardening Activities or Call Centre Activities. The sales per person in this sector overall stood at 31,187 euros.

The branches of greatest value added, in absolute figures, were Legal & Accounting Activities (1310 million euros), Other Service Activities (1146 million euros) and Architecture & Engineering Services (1104 million euros). These 3 sectors generated 735 of the total value added.

37.3% of the wealth generated by this sector accounted for the business surplus and the remaining 62.7% went to employee costs.

The overall result for the year was 1636 million euros, based on a net turnover of 8648 million euros. The largest results for the year, in absolute figures, were posted by Legal & Accounting Activities (799 million), Architecture & Engineering Services (445 million) and Other Service Activities (150 million). On the other hand, the lowest results for the year were posted for the branches of Employment-related Activities (8.7 million) and Travel Agencies (9.8 million).

If the results for the year are considered by the number of people employed, Legal & Accounting Activities and Architecture & Engineering Service again lead the sector with 35,164 and 23,381 euros per employed person. Employment-related Activities and Other Services Activities were at the other end of the scale, with 1037 and 3286 euros per employed person, respectively.

By provinces, Bizkaia accounted for 58.2% of the people employed in this sector in the Basque Country overall, Gipuzkoa employed 27.2% and Araba/Álava posted 14.6%. As far as the distribution of value added was concerned, Gipuzkoa contributed 26.4%, Bizkaia 59.7% and Araba/Álava 14.0%.

For further Information:

Basque Statistics Office C/ Donostia-San Sebastian, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Tel:+34-945-01 75 00 Fax:+34-945-01 75 01 E-mail: eustat@eustat.es Contact: Aitor Oleaga Tel:+34-945-01 75 06 Fax:+34-945-01 75 01 Further press releases on Business and Professional Services Survey Data bank on Business and Professional Services Survey