Trends in the Professional Services Sector

The business services sector covers a diverse range of activities. This box article focuses on five segments within the sector, namely i) legal services, ii) accounting services, iii) business representative offices, iv) business and management consultancy, and v) architectural and engineering services. These five segments are collectively known as the professional services sector.

Growth Trends And Drivers

Since 2000, the nominal value-added (VA) of the professional services sectors has grown by 8.8 percent on a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) basis, outpacing nominal GDP growth of 6.1 per cent (Exhibit 1). As a result, the professional services sector’s share of nominal GDP rose from 3.9 per cent in 2000 to 4.7 per cent in 2008. This level places the professional services sector roughly on par with major manufacturing clusters such as electronics (5.1 per cent) and biomedical manufacturing (4.3per cent) in terms of contribution to the economy.

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