Luxembourg, 18/12/2002 (Agence Europe) - According to a report published on Tuesday by Eurostat, job creation in high-technology and service industries with a high -knowledge base grew faster that in other sectors in the EU during the period 1996-2001. An annual average rate of growth of 1% was registered in the high technology industries, as opposed to 0.5% for manufacturing industry as a whole. The growth rate reaches 3% in high knowledge-based industries, as opposed to 2% in the service sector as a whole. In high technology services, growth reached 6.1%.
The EU Statistical Office also indicates that in 20017.6% of all those employed worked in the high technology industries. Germany was the leading country in "high-tech" manufacturing, followed by Sweden with 7.9%. Luxembourg was last with 1.2%. Knowledge intensive services represented a particularly significant section of the total number of those employed: Sweden (45%), Denmark (42%), the United Kingdom (40.3% and the Netherlands (40.0%). This percentage was lowest in Portugal (19.1%). Eurostat also points out that Germany's first place in high-tech industries also occurred on a regional level and British regions were in the top of those employed in the knowledge intensive service sectors.