The EU’s economy is a small- and medium-sized
enterprise (SME) economy: 99 percent, or
23 million, of Europe’s enterprises are SMEs and
they provide over 100 million jobs dominating
many growth sectors of the EU economy. In a comparative
context the statistical importance of SMEs
to the EU’s economy is even more evident. The
average number of employees by size in non-primary,
private enterprises in the EU and USA is
very similar: micro companies employ 3 people in
the EU and 1 in the USA, small companies 19 in the
EU and 20 in the USA, medium 98 and 94 and large
companies 1,052 in the EU and 1,119 in the USA.
But there is a stark difference between the USA
and the EU in terms of the share of total employment
by company size (see Table 1).