Eurostat - The telecom sector in the EU

The telecom sector in the EU

At EU-27 level, the telecom services sector provided jobs to 1.2 million people and generated EUR 190 billion in value added in 2005. The production value of telecom equipment exceeded EUR 17 billion.

The telecom services sector is a relatively important part of the non-financial business economy with an average of 3.5 % of value added for the EU-27 in 2005. In Bulgaria, it represents more than 10 % of value added in the non-financial business economy. In Austria, on the other hand, the share barely exceeds 2 %.

In terms of employment however, the share of telecom services in the non-financial business economy is much smaller. It varies from 2 % in Bulgaria down to 0.5 % in
Spain, Portugal, Luxembourg and the Czech Republic, with an EU-27 average of 0.9 %.

The weight of the sector is in all countries significantly higher in terms of value added than employment, indicating a particularly high apparent labour productivity (value added per person employed) in this sector.