The employers’ association for small and medium-sized businesses Pimec on 9 September 2026 in Catalonia presented the study “Dimensión empresarial: diagnóstico y propuestas”. Its key finding is that young businesses have a low survival rate and that productivity in Spain is below the EU average. According to Pimec, only about one in ten newly founded businesses remains in the market for a decade.
The study points to a marked decline in the first few years. Oriol Amat, president of the Observatori de la Pyme de Catalunya, describes the early period as the “Valle de la muerte”: many businesses make losses during their first four years before entering a longer period of equilibrium. A sequence presented by Pimec shows that, of 2,150 start-ups, 787 remain active after four months and 650 after four years; there are 260 businesses after ten years. By year 14, 188 businesses with sustained turnover remain, and only 13 continue beyond that point. These figures represent the survival rate of young businesses and support the study’s central finding.
On productivity, Pimec gives a figure for gross value added per employee by 34.780 euros in Spanish small and medium-sized businesses. The stated EU average is 42.116 euros. Pimec sees these as indicators of structural obstacles: limited economies of scale, cautious investment and a small average business size, which make internationalisation and technological renewal more difficult.
Pimec draws policy proposals from these findings. A “Ley de impulso al crecimiento empresarial” should systematically remove barriers to growth, including by making cooperation easier, improving access to finance and streamlining administrative procedures. In labour and social security matters, the association is calling, among other things, for private social security mutuals, Mutuas, to be allowed to certify fitness for work (altas) again, and for collectively agreed sick-pay supplements to be reviewed and, where appropriate, reduced. Pimec argues that faster, clearer procedures could reduce absences and stabilise the performance of small businesses.
The figures and attributions come from Pimec’s presentation and reporting at the time. If the trends are borne out, they would have implications for employment, wages and regional development in Spain. Politically, the proposals touch on sensitive tensions between competitiveness and worker protection. Whether a statutory growth strategy would in fact address the weaknesses identified by Pimec depends on its detailed design, funding and coordination with existing support measures.
Editor: Phillipe Schmidt-Araguin (Article created with AI assistance).