For artisan businesses, 2014 was another year to be consigned to the crisis even if, compared to 2013, the harshness of the selection that has been thinning the sector for the past six years has eased. At the end of the year, the balance between registrations and terminations was negative for 20.393 units, a figure that is still better than the negative record of 2013, when almost 28 artisan businesses closed their doors.
The slowdown in outgoings, however, was not enough to reverse the sign of the balance due to the new negative record established by the openings of new craft businesses: in 2014, in fact, there were only 88.498, the lowest figure in the last eight years. These are the data on the birth and death rate of artisan businesses resulting from the Business Register in 2013 released today by Unioncamere on the basis of Movimprese, the survey conducted by InfoCamere.
In relative terms, the performance of craft businesses can be summarized in a negative growth rate of the stock of 1,45%, considerably lower than the 1,94% in 2013 but which is added to the negative rates of the previous five years. In absolute value, the result of this long "erosion" of the artisan production fabric is reflected in a stock of companies existing as of last December 31 equal to 1.382.773 units.
