The adoption of the definition of the enterprise, within the meaning of the French Law on the Modernisation of the Economy of 2008, introduces a new measurement of enterprise productivity at both macro-economic and micro-economic level.

With this new approach, the value added and factors of “labour” and “capital” production are distributed differently between sectors. More capital (intangible assets in particular) is concentrated in the manufacturing and construction sectors, at the expense of commercial services. More jobs are linked to manufacturing, in particular skilled employment from the tertiary subsidiaries (holding companies, property services, R&D, etc.) of industrial groups. Overall, average labour productivity is increased in the manufacturing and construction sectors and average capital productivity is significantly lower in the construction and trade sectors.

The average labour and capital productivity of large enterprises have also increased significantly. Organised as a group, the latter include a large number of small subsidiaries accounting for a large share of the value added and the means of production.

Lastly, the production function is better understood at micro-economic level: the value added and factors of production generated by the various subsidiaries of the enterprise are brought together in a single production unit. The labour and capital productivity of large enterprises organised as groups are less dispersed, including within each sector.

For all enterprises, whether organised as a group or not, the distribution of labour productivity is pulled upwards in all size categories, with the exception of micro-enterprises. The average level of labour productivity is influenced by a limited number of medium-sized and very large enterprises, within which a high share of the salaried workers within the economy are concentrated and which are significantly more productive than the other enterprises.