Italian small and medium-sized businesses are leaders in Europe. This was reported by the Mestre CGIA research office, according to which by analyzing parameters such as number of companies, employment, turnover and added value, Italian companies with fewer than 250 employees prevail in all categories.
There are just over 4.7 million Italian SMEs, equal to 99.9% of the total, and they employ 14.2 million people. There are 4,619 large companies and they employ over 4.4 million people. In comparison with Germany, Italian SMEs employ 74.6% of the total employees, compared to 55.2% of German ones. In terms of turnover, Italian SMEs produce 62.9% of the total, compared to 35.8% of German ones. The contribution of Italian SMEs to added value is 61.7% of the total, that of German SMEs is 46%. Italian SMEs in the strict sense (10-249 employees) are more productive than German ones by 4,229 euros per employee (+6.6%). However, explains the CGIA, Italian micro businesses (0-9 employees) suffer from a productivity gap of 33% compared to German ones.
In the South, SMEs are an extraordinary source of employment. In Vibo Valentia the incidence of those who work in micro and SMEs is 100%. Followed by Isernia with 98.5%, Trapani and Agrigento both with 98.3%. On the other hand, Italy suffers from “a lack of large companies, a situation – notes the CGIA of Mestre – unknown until about forty years ago” when the country registered numerous international leaders in the chemical, plastic, rubber, steel, aluminum, IT, automotive and pharmaceutical sectors. «Today, four decades later, we have lost ground and leadership in almost all these sectors; a decline not attributable to chance or fortuitous events, but attributable to a natural selection operated by the market”, notes the Research Office. So “if we are still in the G20”, states the CGIA of Mestre, “we owe it to the many small and very small entrepreneurs and their workers”.