Employer enterprise deaths

In terms of the effect on employment, an average of 3.2 jobs (for self-employed persons and employees) was affected per enterprise death. The highest average number of employed persons affected by enterprise deaths was recorded in the economic activities “Mining and quarrying” (18.6), “Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities” (5.8) and “Construction” (4.5).

In 2009, above-average employer enterprise death rates had the economic activities “Arts, entertainment and recreation” (14.7%), “Real estate activities” (12.8%) and “Information and communication” (12.7%). The rates were below average in the sectors “Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities” (4.4%), “Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply” (4.8%) and “Mining and quarrying” (4.9%).

An examination of employer enterprise deaths by legal form shows that sole proprietorships did have the largest share (around 71%) of deaths (analogously to employer enterprise births). Also the highest death rate was recorded for employer enterprises founded as sole proprietorships (12.0%). The rates for limited liability companies and for partnerships and other legal forms were at 5.4% and 8.4% respectively. With regard to the average number of persons employed per employer enterprise death, the number for sole proprietorships was lower (2.9) compared with that of limited liability companies (3.6) and of partnerships and other legal forms (4.5).

The results for the death rate split by employment size classes show that the size class of between 1 and 4 employees had the highest employer enterprise death rate (13.6%). This size class also accounted for the majority of employer enterprise deaths (almost 92%). The death rates for the remaining size classes 5 to 9 and 10 and more employees were much lower (3.0% and 1.6% respectively); these size classes only accounted for 5.4% and 2.9% of all employer enterprise deaths.

A comparison by provinces in 2009 revealed the highest employer enterprise death rates for Vienna (10.8%), Styria (9.9%) and Carinthia (9.7%). In absolute figures most of the employer enterprise closures could be found in Vienna (5 731), Lower Austria (3 634) and Upper Austria (3 303).

The results by gender (sole proprietorships only) show that around 70% of the sole proprietorships closed down in 2009 were owned by men. However, the death rate of employer enterprises which were founded by women was 2 percentage points higher than that of the sole proprietorships owned by men (female employer sole proprietorships: 13.3%, male employer sole proprietorships: 11.5%).

Development of employer enterprise deaths over time (2004 to 2009)

Since 2004, the number of employer enterprise deaths continuously increased, in total by 44.1%. In every year from 2004 to 2009, the number of deaths was higher than that of births. Regarding the development by economic activity in this five-year observation period, the increase in the number of employer enterprise deaths was highest in the branches “Financial and insurance activities” (+125.3%), “Real estate activities” (+120.9%) and “Human health and social work activities” (+68.3%). In other sectors, like “Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply” (+8.8%) and “Manufacturing” (+16.7%) the increases of deaths were lowest. An analysis by legal form illustrates that the number of employer enterprises closed down as limited liability companies increased most over the years (+61.2%). For sole proprietorships, the number of deaths increased by 45.0% between 2004 and 2009, for partnerships (and other legal forms) the increase amounted to 25.6% only. Observing the trends of employer enterprise deaths by employee size class it can be revealed that the number of cessations with 1 to 4 employees increased most (+47.8%) between 2004 and 2009. Employer enterprise deaths that had between 5 and 9 or 10 and more employees each increased by around 14% only. Regarding the results by gender (for sole proprietorships only) there was no real difference between closures of employer enterprises founded by women or by men; both increased by around 45%.