Italian firms have on average 3.8 employees says ISTAT

(ANSA) - Rome, April 7 - Italian firms emply an average of 3.8 people, national statistics agency ISTAT said on Thursday citing 2013 figures. This compares to an European average of 5.9, the agency added. However, the rate of entrepreneurship in Italy - calculated as the ratio of the number of freelancers to the number of employees - was 30.2%, putting the country second only to Greece among EU member states. In Germany and France the rate was 8.3% and 9.5% respectively. As well, ISTAT said Italy had 158,412 tourist lodging facilities in 2014 to a total of 4.8 million beds. This represented an increase respectively of 0.6% and 2.6% over 2013, the agency added. Italy had more available tourist accommodation than Germany, France or Spain but less than Croatia, Austria and Greece.