Over 205,000 firms, or about 42.4% of the total number of companies which were active last year in Romania, were in the service sector, according to the National Statistics Institute (INS).

The second largest sector by number of companies was commerce, with over 176,000 firms (36.5% of the total). The industry sector included almost 54,000 companies, or 11.2% of all the companies active in the economy, while the construction sector had little under 48,000 companies (9.9%).

The number of companies grew by 4.7% last year in comparison to 2013, reaching 483,000.

The average number of employees in the economy grew by 1% in 2014 compared to the previous year, reaching 3.83 million. The highest number of employees was recorded in the industry, namely 35.8% of the total, whereas the employees in the services area amounted to about 33.3%.

An average company in industry had about 25.5 employees, whereas one firm active in the trade sector had about 5 employees.

editor@romania-insider.com