Productivity at a standstill for SMEs
Following the surge in 2021, figures are returning to pre-pandemic levels. The South is struggling
More numerous but less productive. The analysis carried out by Cerved for the period 2019–2025 paints a mixed picture: whilst there are positive signs in terms of ‘population’ and employment, the system’s long-standing problems – in terms of scale and efficiency – persist.
In summary: whilst they employ over 900,000 more people than in 2019, SMEs have not, on average, become any larger or more productive. These figures were presented during the ‘Datamade – Data to Build Growth’ event, a forum for discussion with businesses and institutions organised by Cerved in collaboration with Elite – Euronext Group and Intesa Sanpaolo. According to the analysis, between 2019 and 2025 the number of active SMEs in Italia grew by 21 per cent, rising from 180,000 to almost 218,000. This increase is mainly linked to the shift in size from the ‘micro’ category, as businesses exceeded the threshold of 10 employees: among businesses present in both 2019 and 2024, approximately 8.2 per cent became medium-sized, and 9.6 per cent of medium-sized businesses moved into the large category. SMEs employ 5.63 million workers (+20% compared with 2019, when the figure stood at 4.69 million), but the median size of each category remains stable, because each ‘yields’ to the next higher category whilst simultaneously being continuously replenished from below, incorporating companies that are, on average, less productive.
“The increase in the number of SMEs and employees,” explains Luca Peyrano, CEO of Cerved, “is an important sign, but it is not enough. The figures show that the priority is to translate this growth into greater productivity and scalability. It is by this measure that the competitiveness of our production system is gauged.”
From an economic perspective, the aggregate real turnover of SMEs has increased compared with 2019, albeit to a lesser extent than employment (though the real turnover of the median firm has fallen across all size categories), and profit margins have improved.
Median EBITDA rose by 20 per cent for small firms and 15 per cent for medium-sized firms, driven more by cost containment than by revenue growth. However, the main structural issue remains productivity, which is returning to pre-pandemic levels following the rebound seen in 2021 across all size categories.
