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Professional, scientific and specialist activities. Main results. By branches

Professional, scientific and specialist activities. Main results. By branches CCAE-2009 Catalonia. 2021
Legal and accounting Head office and business consulting Technical serv., architecture & engineering, tech. analysis Research and development Advertising and market analysis Other professional and specialist Veterinary Total
Companies (number) 26,025 (b) Break in time series 6,199 (b) Break in time series 22,711 (b) Break in time series 2,101 (b) Break in time series 13,021 (b) Break in time series 18,954 (b) Break in time series 1,651 (b) Break in time series 90,661 (b) Break in time series
Establishments (number) 27,563 6,609 23,764 2,215 13,662 19,479 1,830 95,121
Employed persons (number) 67,137 37,966 52,966 7,142 29,336 30,626 4,774 229,946
Operating income 5,193,267 4,713,021 4,583,051 801,110 4,472,154 2,095,218 283,928 22,141,748
Turnover 5,057,923 4,414,686 4,466,835 608,622 4,373,813 2,003,823 282,300 21,208,002
Work done for the asset 6,603 26,768 35,059 103,787 -1,668 45,352 7 215,907
Operating subsidies 17,055 11,229 28,880 52,094 13,688 19,958 403 143,308
Other operating income 111,687 260,338 52,277 36,607 86,321 26,084 1,218 574,531
Invent. var. prim. mat., supplies and merchandise 783 27,670 5,490 477 2,866 9,417 749 47,452
Inventory variation in products finished and in progress 4,178 11,610 8,609 1,822 2,145 -498 397 28,262
Operating expenses 3,869,854 4,980,839 4,074,020 756,301 4,162,118 1,520,160 245,912 19,609,203
Consumption of goods 141 128,792 9,519 307 1,414,643 4,001 17,263 1,574,665
Consumption of raw materials and other supplies 81,311 309,467 590,616 78,509 430,356 191,400 77,145 1,758,805
Work done by other companies 224,747 340,890 810,640 69,071 445,358 302,695 10,722 2,204,123
Personnel costs 1,783,733 2,315,342 1,542,048 284,393 930,153 545,275 91,842 7,492,786
Wages and salaries 1,404,593 1,873,611 1,198,512 228,580 722,406 427,208 71,185 5,926,096
Social burdens and other personnel costs 379,141 441,731 343,536 55,812 207,747 118,067 20,657 1,566,690
Expenditure on external services 1,640,393 1,773,552 963,756 263,212 822,335 381,169 40,852 5,885,268
Provision for amortizations 77,063 974,021 97,528 49,388 92,969 67,378 7,140 1,365,487
Other operating expenses 62,466 -861,225 59,913 11,421 26,304 28,241 950 -671,931
Gross investment in tangible assets 79,590 188,537 111,177 14,004 32,699 55,705 11,144 492,855
Gross investment in intangible assets 23,816 103,871 72,477 88,681 11,537 55,531 278 356,192
Result of the financial year 526,430 3,725,518 269,822 20,353 60,735 58,430 3,291 4,664,579
Units: Thousands of euros.
Source: Idescat, based on the INE's Structural business statistics in the service sector.
Note: Due to methodological improvements in the calculation of the number of companies, in 2021 there is a break in time series compared to previous years.
(b) Break in time series.

Last update: November 23, 2023.

Methodological note

Definition of concepts

Consumption of goods
Number of purchases of goods (assets acquired by the company to be resold without subjecting them to a transformation process) made by the company during the reference year, less the changes in good inventories. The purchases are accounted for without including VAT and in net terms, in other words, by deducting discounts for immediate payment, sales returns and quantity discounts.
Personnel costs
Total amount of payments made by the company as wages and salaries, compensations, Social Security paid by the company and other social costs (long term retributions via contributory systems or defined allowances, retributions to personnel via patrimony instruments and other social expenses).
Operating expenses
TTotal amount obtained as a result of adding up the different expenses linked to the operations performed by the company: consumption and work performed by other companies, personnel expenses, external services and other operating expenses.
Expenditure on external services
Sum of all the different operating expenses incurred by the company during the reference year, including R&D expenses, leases and fees, repairs and maintenance, services of independent professionals, third-party transport, non-social insurance premiums, banking services and the like, advertising, publicity and public relations, supplies and other services.
Company
The smallest combination of legal units constituting an organisational unit for the production of goods or services, one having certain autonomy in terms of decision-making, principally for allocating the resources it has at its disposal.
Operating revenue
Total amount obtained as a result of aggregating the different revenue associated to the operation.
Gross investment in intangible assets
Amount of expenditure (acquisitions or own production) on research and development activities, investment in IT applications and other intangible assets, such as concessions, patents, licences, trade funds, similar rights and others. These operations are accounted for by their total value without including VAT.
Gross investment in material assets
Amount of the increases in value produced for different types of asset, which originate from purchases of new or used assets from third parties, from the production of one's own assets or from work done by the company or third parties on already existing elements in order to increase production capacity, performance or useful life. This is the gross investment. Until 2007, the investment was calculated as a difference between real increases in the value of capital and the sales of said resources. Investment operations are accounted for as their total value. Purchases are valued at acquisition cost, without including deductible VAT but including transport, installation costs, registration and notary costs and other non deductible taxes. Work done by the company using its resources is valued at cost price. Does not include investments in property made to obtain income or capital gains.
Annual balance
Total amount of the profit or loss for the year as obtained as a consequence of the company's activity.
Changes in inventories of raw materials, other supplies and goods
Amount corresponding to the difference between the final inventories and initial inventories of raw materials, other supplies and goods. These inventories are valued at acquisition cost.
Changes in inventories in products finished and in progress
Amount corresponding to the difference between the final and initial inventories of the different products (finished, semi-finished and in progress, by-products, waste and recovered materials) manufactured by the company. These inventories are valued at production cost.
Turnover
It includes the amounts invoiced by the company during the reference year for sales of goods and services corresponding to the company's ordinary activities. These sales are accounted for in net terms, in other words, by deducting sales discounts for immediate payment, sales returns, the value of returned packaging and quantity discounts. The taxes and duties on invoiced goods and services are included but the VAT transferred to the customer is excluded.

Methodological aspects

The Structural Business Statistics in the Service Sector, called the Annual Services Survey prior to the reference year 2014, is a sample-based survey that is produced annually by the INE in order to study the economic characteristics of companies in almost all of the market services sector (number of establishments, employment, income and operating costs, etc.) and estimate the main micromagnitudes. Idescat makes a detailed treatment for Catalonia and collaborates with the publishing of questionnaires.

The information about professional, scientific and technical activities, administrative and support service activities; that Idescat has produced using data from the from the INE is presented in two tables: main results and macromagnitudes.

Since 2008, the Annual services survey has been adapted to the new National classification of economic activities (CNAE-2009). This change involves a shift in the series that prevents inter-annual comparison between most sectors and some variables.

The correspondences between the sectors used and the Catalan classification of economic activities (CCAE-2009) is as follows:

CCAE-2009Groups of activities
  
45Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles
46Wholesale trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles
47Retail trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles
49-53Transportation and storage
55,56Accommodation
58-63Information and communication
68Real estate activities
69-75 Professional, scientific and technical activities
77-82 Administrative and support service activities
90-93Arts, entertainment and recreation
95,96Other services

In 2009, 2010 and 2010, the "Other services" group was partially studied. From the year 2012 onwards, the two branches of this group will be studied again.

List of branches each year studied:

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Repair of computers and personal and household goods (div. 95)    YES    YES    YES   YES    YES
Other personal service activities (div. 96)    YES    –    –    –    YES

Several methodological improvements were applied to the Structural Business Statistics in 2016. The results for 2016 are therefore not strictly comparable with those for previous years.

You can get more information about these statistics in the methodology.