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:

• Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services: NAICS 54
• Management of Companies and Enterprises: NAICS 55
• Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services: NAICS 56

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

Data series	Back data	Apr. 2022	May 2022	Jun. 2022	Jul. 2022
Employment (in thousands)
Employment, all employees (seasonally adjusted)		22,130	22,199	(p)22,290	(p)22,379
Employment, production and nonsupervisory employees (seasonally adjusted)		17,701	17,774	(p)17,835	(p)17,914
Unemployment
Unemployment rate		3.0%	3.1%	3.4%	3.3%
Job openings, hires, and separations (in thousands)
Job openings		2,431	1,982	(p)1,967
Hires		1,411	1,380	(p)1,349
Separations		1,287	1,189	(p)1,147
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

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

Union Membership and Representation

Data series	Back data	2018	2019	2020	2021
Union membership and representation
Members of unions (percent of wage and salary workers)		2.6%	2.2%	2.2%	2.2%
Represented by unions (percent of wage and salary workers)		3.2%	3.0%	3.0%	2.9%

(Source: Current Population Survey)

Dynamic Changes in Employment

Data series	Back data	1st quarter 2021	2nd quarter 2021	3rd quarter 2021	4th quarter 2021
Dynamic changes in employment (in thousands)
Gross job gains		1,467	1,539	1,728	1,966
Gross job losses		1,245	1,470	1,476	1,303

(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

Data series	Back data	Apr. 2022	May 2022	Jun. 2022	Jul. 2022
Average hourly earnings		$38.53	$38.60	(p)$38.64	(p)$38.87
Average weekly hours		36.7	36.5	(p)36.7	(p)36.7
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Earnings and Hours of Production and Nonsupervisory Employees

Data series	Back data	Apr. 2022	May 2022	Jun. 2022	Jul. 2022
Average hourly earnings		$32.35	$32.33	(p)$32.54	(p)$32.66
Average weekly hours		36.3	36.2	(p)36.3	(p)36.4
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(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).

Data series	Access		Participation
	Back data	2021	Back data	2021
Private industry
Retirement benefit plans		67		55
Defined benefit plans		13		8
Defined contribution plans		66		52

(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)

Data series	After 1 year of service		After 20 years of service
	Back data	2021	Back data	2021
Mean number of vacation days for private industry workers without consolidated leave plans		10		18

(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)

Data series	Back data	2021
Percent of private industry workers with access to employer-sponsored benefits
Health care		74
Paid vacation		81
Paid sick leave		81

(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)

Employer Compensation Costs

Data series	Back data	3rd quarter 2021	4th quarter 2021	1st quarter 2022	2nd quarter 2022
Private industry
12-month percent change
Total compensation		3.7%	3.9%	4.5%	5.4%
Wages and salaries		4.0%	4.1%	4.6%	5.4%
3-month percent change
Total compensation		1.5%	0.8%	1.6%	1.5%
Wages and salaries		1.6%	0.8%	1.4%	1.5%

(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)

Data series	Private industry
	Compensation component ($ per hour worked)		Percent of total compensation
	Back data	1st quarter 2022	Back data	1st quarter 2022
Total compensation		47.08		100.0
Wages and salaries		33.50		71.1
Total benefits		13.59		28.9
Insurance		3.15		6.7
Retirement		1.38		2.9
Paid leave		3.86		8.2

(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)

Union Membership and Representation

Data series	Back data	Median weekly earnings
		2018	2019	2020	2021
Union membership and representation
Full-time workers		$1,094	$1,149	$1,220	$1,241
Members of unions		$888	$903	$960	$1,023
Represented by unions		$906	$918	$993	$1,017
Nonunion		$1,105	$1,155	$1,228	$1,249

(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	2015	2016	2017	2018
Fatalities
Number of fatalities	491	561	545	598
Blank cells indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria.

Data series	2020
Rate of injury and illness cases per 100 full-time workers
Total recordable cases	1.1
Cases involving days away from work, job restriction, or transfer	0.6
Cases involving days away from work	0.4
Cases involving days of job transfer or restriction	0.2
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

Data series	Back data	1st quarter 2021	2nd quarter 2021	3rd quarter 2021	4th quarter 2021
Number of establishments
Private industry		(p)2,043,858	(p)2,091,990	(p)2,144,699	(p)2,188,627
Local government		(p)4,486	(p)4,487	(p)4,499	(p)4,497
State government		(p)1,107	(p)1,108	(p)1,120	(p)1,126
Federal government		(p)1,461	(p)1,461	(p)1,455	(p)1,452
Establishments with changes in employment (in thousands)
With job gains (seasonally adjusted)		421	426	459	474
With job losses (seasonally adjusted)		349	392	403	388
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

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

 

Data extracted on: August 05, 2022