35. Employees

Financials

The average employee headcount during the year by nature of activity and by segment is shown below.

	2008 Number	2007 Number	2006 Number
By activity:
Operations	12,891	12,630	12,541
Selling and distribution	22,063	18,937	17,315
Administration	37,421	34,776	31,816
	72,375	66,343	61,672
By segment:
Germany	9,691	10,383	10,124
Italy	6,669	7,030	7,123
Spain	4,057	4,066	4,052
UK	10,367	10,256	10,620
Arcor	3,940	4,038	4,086
Other Europe	8,645	8,797	9,778
Europe	43,369	44,570	45,783

Eastern Europe	10,398	9,194	5,763
Middle East, Africa & Asia	12,622	6,839	4,640
Pacific	3,030	2,791	2,858
EMAPA	26,050	18,824	13,261

Common functions	2,956	2,949	2,628
Total continuing operations	72,375	66,343	61,672

Discontinued operations:
Japan	–	233	2,733

The cost incurred in respect of these employees (including directors) was⁽¹⁾:

Continuing operations	2008 £m	2007 £m	2006 £m
Wages and salaries	2,175	1,979	1,879
Social security costs	325	300	242
Share-based payments	107	93	109
Other pension costs (note 25)	91	94	80
	2,698	2,466	2,310

Note:
(1)	The cost incurred in respect of employees (including directors) from discontinued operations was £nil (2007: £16 million, 2006: £155 million).