Service sector businesses continue to grow
The number of businesses in the service sector is continuing to grow, new figures revealed today.
The Annual Services Inquiry showed the total number of such businesses, like hotels and estate agents, jumped by 7,000 between 2002 and 2003.
The number of enterprises, workers and turnover levels were heavily weighted in favour of the south east of the country, compared to the Border, Midlands and West (BMW) region, the Central Statistics Office survey also showed.
There were an estimated 83,276 enterprises operating in the Irish Services sector during 2003.
Wholesale and retail accounted for 31,080 (37%), hotels and restaurants 12,301 (15%), transport, storage and communications 6,747 (8%), real estate, renting and business services 26,666 (32%) and others 6,482 (8%).
The Eastern and Southern region had 63,138 enterprises, or more than three quarters, while only 20,139 enterprises were situated in the BMW region.
The BMW region only accounted for 15% or €18.6bn of the total turnover (€125.6bn) generated by all the services sector included in the report.
The Annual Services Inquiry was initiated in 1991 to enable the Government to determine the performance of this sector of the economy.
The results are used in the compilation of the National Accounts and for economic and physical planning at national level.
Businesses use the results for market research, analysis and development plans, while individual companies also use the results to compare their performance with other concerns in the same line of business.
