Professional and Business Services

About the Professional and Business Services supersector

The professional and business services supersector is part of the service-providing industries supersector group.

The professional and business services supersector consists of these sectors:

Workforce Statistics

This section provides information relating to employment and unemployment in professional and business services. While most data are obtained from employer or establishment surveys, information on industry unemployment comes from a national survey of households. The following tables present an overview of the industry including the number of jobs, the unemployment rate of those previously employed in the industry, job openings and labor turnover, union membership and representation, gross job gains and losses, and projections of occupational employment change.

Employment, Unemployment, and Openings, Hires, and Separations

(Source: Current Employment Statistics, Current Population Survey, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey)

Union Membership and Representation

Data series
Back
data
2019
2020
2021
2022

Union membership and representation

Members of unions (percent of wage and salary workers)

2.2%

2.2%

2.2%

2.2%

Represented by unions (percent of wage and salary workers)

3.0%

3.0%

2.9%

2.8%

(Source: Current Population Survey)

Dynamic Changes in Employment

Data series
Back
data
3rd quarter
2021
4th quarter
2021
1st quarter
2022
2nd quarter
2022

Dynamic changes in employment (in thousands)

Gross job gains

1,755

1,961

1,613

1,648

Gross job losses

1,454

1,302

1,361

1,702

(Source: Business Employment Dynamics)

Projections

For projected (future) employment estimates in professional and business services, see the Employment and projected employment by major industry sector table.

(Source: Office of Occupational Statistics and Employment Projections)

Earnings and Hours

This section presents data on employee earnings and weekly hours. The latest industry averages of hourly earnings and weekly hours, as well as weekly earnings by union membership status, are shown. This section also contains information on recent rates of change in wages and total compensation.

Earnings and Hours of All Employees

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Earnings and Hours of Production and Nonsupervisory Employees

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Employee Benefits

This section presents data on the incidence (the percentage of workers with access to and participation in employer-provided benefit plans) and provisions of selected employee benefits from the National Compensation Survey. More Benefits estimates are also accessible from the Benefits database, the archived NCS publications page, and the complete Employee Benefits Excel dataset (XLSX).

(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)

(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)

(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)

Employer Compensation Costs

(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)

(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)

Union Membership and Representation

(Source: Current Population Survey)

Work-related Fatalities, Injuries, and Illnesses

This section presents data for the industry on the number of workplace fatalities and the rates of workplace injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers in professional and business services. An injury or illness is considered to be work-related if an event or exposure in the work environment either caused or contributed to the resulting condition or significantly aggravated a pre-existing condition.

Data series
2018
2019
2020
2021

Fatalities

Number of fatalities

598

570

Blank cells indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria.

(Source: Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities)

Workplace Trends

This section presents data on the number of establishments and the number of establishments experiencing job gains or job losses in professional and business services.

Establishments

(Source: Business Employment Dynamics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages)