While manufacturing is, and will remain, a vital part of our economy, we have heard for years about the transformation to a service/information economy. And yet, up until now, the government did very little to track this major part of our economy–on that is dominated by entrepreneurs. On Monday (gee, I missed it in the papers and the evening news, too) the Census Bureau issued its first full report on this sector’s economic health. Any fears that service and information are still hurting were completely smashed by this report.
Here is a summary of this report for Q2 2004 from Inc.com:
“The report showed that information services revenue rose 4.4% in the second quarter of 2004 to 0.1 billion. Revenue from administrative and support services, as well as waste management and remediation services, totaled 1.9 billion, up 5.6% from the first quarter. Revenue from professional, scientific, and technical services posted the largest gain, rising 6.3% to 1.6 billion.”
How important is this sector?
“According to the Census Bureau, the three sectors constitute approximately 15% of U.S. gross domestic product, with service industries in general accounting for nearly 55% of the nation’s economic activity, excluding retail and wholesale trade.”
Note that this is excluding retail and wholesale. So these are not just burger flipping jobs. This report certainly helps support the strong employment data we have seen recently from the household employment numbers.
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