EU high tech sector shows signs of growth
Growth of between 0.5 and 1 per cent during the second half of the 1990s led to over four million people working in the high tech sector within the EU in 2000, according to new statistics from Eurostat. The high tech sector is commonly defined as industrial activities which are at the forefront of technology in terms of the products manufactured and the processes of production used. The industries under this umbrella change over time as technology advances. The first half of the 1990s saw a decline in employment in the sector by over 3 per cent per year. In addition to employing just over four million people, the high tech industry was responsible for just under 19 per cent of total manufacturing value-added (271 billion euro). As is the case with all sectors, the high tech industry is of varying importance across the EU. In 1999, the sector accounted for 30 per cent of those working in manufacturing in Ireland, and over 17 per cent in France, Finland, Sweden and the UK in 2000. Conversely, between 7 and 8 per cent of those working in manufacturing were part of the high tech sector in Spain and Portugal. The figures illustrate dominance in the high tech industries by large enterprises, much more so than in the manufacturing sector as a whole, and by men. Around 30 per cent of EU high tech sector employees are women, less than in both the US and Japan. This figure again differs within EU Member States, with women constituting 47 per cent of high tech workers in Portugal and under 20 per cent in the Netherlands. Whether men or women, those employed in the high tech sector have, on average, higher educational qualifications than those employed in manufacturing as a whole or in the rest of the economy.
Kraje
Austria, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Greece, Spain, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, United Kingdom