Brussels, 27/03/2001 (Agence Europe) - In the European Union, employment is growing faster in high tech industries and knowledge-intensive services than in traditional industry, but Research and Development investment is lagging behind the United States and Japan. These are the main conclusions drawn in "A statistical panorama of the EU knowledge-based economy" which has just been published by Eurostat.
The Statistical Office of the European Communities notes that in 1998, Japan spent 3.03% of its GDP on R&D, the United States spent 2.58% and the EU 1.86%. Since 1993, R&D expenditure in the EU fell in relative terms but increased in absolute terms. The report points out that private sector R&D investment is much higher in the United States and Japan (77 and 75% of total R&D expenditure respectively) than in the EU (64%). By contrast, the proportion of R&D expenditure by the public sector is higher in the EU than in the US and Japan. In 1998, Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom accounted for almost 75% of total EU R&D expenditure. The Member States that devoted most of their GDP to research were the Scandinavian countries, Germany, France and the Netherlands.
Eurostat notes that between1995 and 1999, employment in high tech industries in the EU grew by an annual average of 0.9%, compared to a total manufacturing growth rate of 0.3%. During the same period, jobs in knowledge-intensive services grew by an annual average of 2.9%, compared to growth of 1.8% in the service sector as a whole. The Statistical Office comments that between 1994 and 1999, there has been an increase in the share of highly qualified employees in science and technology. Full statistics are available at: http: //europa.eu.int/comm/eurostat.html.