Europe's microtechnology industry signals growth

In early 2017, growth forecasts in Europe’s microtechnology industry are distinctively positive. More than 80 percent of the companies expect to increase sales in the period from 2017 to 2019. The number of employees is also expected to rise in more than three-quarters of the companies. However, securing skilled workforce remains a challenge for more than half of the companies.
 
Increasing growth rates during the last four years are likely to have given rise to this optimism in the microtechnology industry: since 2013, the share of companies that have been able to increase their turnover and their number of employees has risen steadily. In 2016, more than half of the microtechnology companies (56.3 %) achieved an increase in sales. Almost half (47.7 %) of companies hired additional staff last year.
 
Source: IVAM Survey 2017