Services sector enterprises with less than Rs 500 crore output account for 63% employment: Survey

Services sector enterprises with less than Rs 500 crore output accounted for 63.03 per cent of the total employment in the segment, according to a government survey released on Wednesday. The first pilot study on the Annual Survey of Services Sector Enterprises (ASSSE) conducted by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation revealed that larger enterprises with output Rs 500 crore and above dominate in terms of asset ownership (62.77 per cent), net fixed capital formation (62.73 per cent), gross value added (69.47 per cent) and total compensation (63.17 per cent). The data also showed “that enterprises (having output below Rs 500 crore) make up almost account for 63.03 per cent of total employment and 36.84 per cent of total compensation”.

According to the survey, 28.5 per cent of enterprises reported having additional places of business within the state.

This percentage was observed to be the highest in the trade sector, with around 41.8 per cent of enterprises belonging to this sector reporting additional places of business in the state.

The findings, which are based on the GSTN database, will provide a foundation for launching the full-scale annual survey, starting in January 2026, the statement said.

A majority of the corporate entities in the pilot study on ASSSE are Private Limited Companies (82.40 per cent at the overall level) during FY 2022-23, followed by Public Limited Companies and Limited Liability Partnership (each having nearly 8 per cent share). Phase I of the pilot was conducted from May 2024 to August 2024 covering 10,005 enterprises primarily to verify and update address and activity information, along with collecting some quantitative information like gross sale value and employment.

Phase-II of the pilot study was based on responses from 5,020 enterprises selected from the list of eligible enterprises of Phase-I took place from November 2024 to January 2025.