The total economy can be split into homogeneous economic units, i.e. units which manufacture goods (or produce services) pertaining to the same activity according to the French classification of activities "NAF révision 2 (NAF rév. 2)".

The assembling of these homogeneous economic units forms homogeneous branches. These homogeneous branches differ from the economic sectors which assemble autonomous economic units classified according to their principal activity.

The homogeneous branches activity is registered in the production account and the generation of income account. The production account describes the relation between the production and the intermediate consumption. Its balancing item is the gross value added that measures the wealth created by the production process.

The generation of income account describes the extent to which the gross value added can cover the compensation of employees and other taxes less subsidies on production. Its balancing items are the gross operating surplus and the gross mixed income. They measure the operating profit obtained by the economic units from their own use of their production facilities.

The combination of the gross value added and the domestic employment by industry enables to assess the apparent productivity of work. The combination of the wages and salaries and the domestic employment (or total hours worked) enables to assess the average wage per person (or per hour).