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The industry with the second-highest percentage of SMEs is wholesale and retail . This industry has more than 500,000 businesses and more than four in 10 ( 43 %) are small or medium-sized .

Real estate industry has the third-highest proportion of SMEs , with 35.4 % of all enterprises having below 250 employees . The industry has 134,095 businesses operating in the UK and 47,740 are small or medium-sized .

The study also analysed each UK region and found that Northern Ireland has the highest proportion of SMEs in the UK . With Scotland ranking as second , England as third and Wales as fourth – with 26.7 % of operating businesses in the country being SMEs .

The study also assessed the most in-demand skills for entry-level positions across a range of industries and found that communication and Microsoft Office proficiency are the most commonly occurring skills on job adverts – both appear in 61 % of the jobs that were analysed . The third most in-demand skill is a high attention to detail , appearing in 44 % of ads for entry-level positions .

“ It ’ s essential that SMEs are not only given the support to grow and continue making such an important contribution , but also that there is a skilled workforce able to help them deliver and adapt to the demands of an evolving economy ,” said Ritchie Mehta , CEO of School of Marketing .

“ This data shows that when it comes to skills , there are some common themes that employers are looking for across a range of jobs , however in the current climate , budgets for training are likely to be cut and the skills gap could widen . SME owners can take advantage of the Apprenticeship Levy scheme to bring in new staff or train current ones in digital and data-led programmes , with the vast majority of the training cost covered by the levy .” �