Services

The service industry produces value that is mainly intangible and includes sectors and activities such as staffing and recruiting, accounting and consulting, legal services, customer service, training and development, as well as knowledge and data. Companies and individuals operating in this sector focus on using knowledge, information, and expertise to provide services and/or transform goods for businesses, the public sector, as well as individual customers.

Over the past century, the service sector expanded rapidly, and has become the largest sector of the economy in most developed nations. The expansion of the service industry is a result of the increase in knowledge, the rapid technological growth, and the development of fast communication tools and infrastructures that occurred in the last decades.

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  • Staffing industry revenue worldwide from 2008 to 2023 (in billion U.S. dollars)
    Feb 12, 2024

    In 2023, the revenue of the staffing industry worldwide totaled roughly 593 billion U.S. dollars. Following years of continuous growth, the global staffing industry revenue amounted to 442 billion U.S. dollars in 2020 due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. The industry has been predicted to bounce back strongly, generating more revenue than before the coronavirus pandemic between 2021 and 2023.

    Staffing companies Staffing firms strive to assist organizations in finding and hiring staff, at all levels. The industry is divided into two main segments, search and recruiting - for hiring new or promoting internal staff - and temporary/agency staffing - for providing workforce to fill in vacancies for specific functions. Based on 2020 revenues, Randstad, was the leading staffing firm worldwide.

    Staffing industry in the United States The staffing industry in the United States is one of the largest worldwide and also experienced continuous growth prior to 2020, reporting a revenue of nearly 152 billion U.S. dollars in 2019. Following the COVID-19 pandemic the staffing industry market size in the United States has returned to pre-pandemic levels and much more.

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  • Revenue of the market research industry worldwide from 2008 to 2023 with a forecast for 2024 (in billion U.S. dollars)
    Feb 28, 2024

    The global market research industry reached a record high market size of approximately 84.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. Over the last decade, the global market research industry has performed contrary to broader economic trends as the industry has continued to grow. Figures for 2023 signaled an increase of about 3.5 billion U.S. dollars compared to the previous year.

    Market research industry

    Market research is the activity of gathering information about markets in which an organization sells their produces and/or services. This often includes detailed qualitative understandings of consumer attitudes and preferences through tools such interviews, surveys, and increasingly, big-data analytics. The leading market research company worldwide was U.S.-based Gartner in 2022.

    Slow growth in Europe

    While growth in the United States has been significant, the revenue of the market research industry in Europe grew just slightly since 2014. Some analysts expect this poor performance to continue into the near future for two reasons. First is the short- and mid-term uncertainty created by Brexit, impacting the reliability of any market research conducted prior to the issue being resolved. Second is the implementation of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) laws in May 2018, which limit what companies are able to do with personal data. A majority of IT professionals in France, Germany and the UK agree the GDPR laws will prevent personal data being passed on to third parties, reducing the amount of data available to researchers in Europe compared to other regions.

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  • Market size of the management consulting industry worldwide from 2014 to 2023, with a forecast for 2024 (in billion U.S. dollars)
    Mar 4, 2024

    The management consulting industry was valued at roughly one trillion U.S. dollars in 2023. The market value of the industry peaked in 2022 and was expected to grow to an even higher figure in 2024. The industry also reached its first evaluation of more than one trillion dollars in 2022.

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  • Leading language service providers (LSP) worldwide in 2023, by revenue (in million U.S. dollars)
    Feb 29, 2024

    In 2023, U.S.-based TransPerfect was the language service provider with the largest revenue worldwide, recording 1.2 billion U.S. dollars. LanguageLine Solutions, also based in the United States, was second in the list.

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  • Market size of security services in the United States from 2012 to 2023 (in billion U.S. dollars)
    Apr 30, 2024

    The market size of the security services industry in the United States increased steadily since 2012, and reached a value of roughly 47.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. Despite the economic effects of COVID-19, the industry continued to grow and was worth 260 million U.S. dollars more than it was in 2020.

    Security services Companies operating in the security services industry provide private security guards and patrol vehicles, as well as additional ancillary services such as alarm systems, background screening, investigation, risk analysis, and security consultancy services. In 2022, the leading three contract security services companies in the United States generated a combined revenue of almost 22 billion U.S. dollars.

    What about cybersecurity? As internet usage has increased, cybercrime has become one of the fastest growing security threats worldwide. Data breaches, for instance, have become some sort of new normal in the digital realm. As a result, companies and individuals have looked to protect themselves and their devices. Spending in the cybersecurity industry grew rapidly in recent years, and reached approximately 71 billion U.S. dollars in 2022.

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Industry Definition

Statista provides a wide range of statistical facts and market data about the business services and skilled labor sectors. These include information on global and regional developments, leading companies, as well as the latest trends.

The section Business Services presents information on the largest markets worldwide for B2B services, and the most important providers in the various industry segments. The main segments comprise accounting and consulting, market research, call centers, customer service, facility management, and staffing.

Skilled labor refers to the segment of the workforce with a high skill level that yields substantial economic value through the work performed. This section provides facts, statistics and information on sectors such as legal services, security services, architecture, engineering, and interior design, among others.

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