The Department of Trade and Industry has today announced its SME statistics for 1999. Their findings include the following results:
There were an estimated 3.7 million active businesses in the UK at the start of 1999. Of those 3.7 million, 2.3million were ‘size class zero’ meaning they were composed of sole traders or partners without employees. The number of size class zero businesses has fallen since the start of 1998, particularly in the agriculture, construction and wholesale/retail sectors.
At the start of 1999, 1.3 million businesses were employers, a slight increase on the 1998 figures, mainly due to the rise in businesses with one employee.
