Approximately 4.6 million people over the age of 15 were employed in 2019 in the public utilities sector in the European Union (EU), the equivalent of 2.3% of all employees, and Croatia (4.8%) , Bulgaria (3.8%) and Romania (3.7%) are the Member States with the highest share of employees, according to data published on Wednesday by Eurostat.

Other Member States with a high share of employees are Greece (3.4%) and Poland (3.2%).
On the other hand, the countries with the lowest share of employees in the public utilities sector are: the Netherlands (1.4%), Denmark and Austria (both by 1.7% each), Germany, Finland and Sweden (all by 1.8%), according to Agerpres.

The public utilities sector covers the supply of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning (31% of employees in the sector), waste collection, treatment and disposal (22%), telecommunications (19%), retail sale of automotive fuels in specialty stores ( 10%), collection, treatment and supply of water (9%), manufacture of refined petroleum products (4%), sewerage (3%), waste management and depollution activities (1%), oil and natural gas extraction (1%), activities to support oil and gas extraction (1%).

Eurostat data show that the EU regions with the highest share of employees in the public utilities sector are: Western Macedonia, Greece (5.8%), Southwest Oltenia, Romania (5.6%) and the North West, in Bulgaria (5.4%).