by Brianna Crandall — February 13, 2015—Research and policy organization the Business Services Association (BSA) recently published a report commissioned by Oxford Economics that sets out the economic contribution of the business services sector to the U.K. economy at the national, regional, and constituency level.
According to BSA, the business services sector is made up of five categories: facilities management (FM), business process outsourcing, information technology (IT) and digital services, construction services, and front-line outsourced public services.
According to the report, the sector is a major contributor to the U.K. economy:
- Accounting for 8.7% of output (£263 billion pa)
- Similar in output to the financial services sector
- Contributes £33.5 billion in the five main taxes (10.5% of all revenues from these sources)
The sector was also determined to be a significant job creator:
- 3.3 million people are employed—10.2% of all U.K. jobs
- Employs more people than manufacturing
- Employment is evenly spread across the country—between 8.25% and 11.75% of people in each U.K. region work in the sector
In every constituency in the country, the sector drives investment and job creation, and delivers essential services to the private and public sectors, found the report. Two-thirds of business services is business-to-business—driving the economy forward, concludes the report.
The Oxford Economics report, The U.K. Market for Business Services: The National, Regional and Constituency Picture in 2013, is available for download on the BSA Web site.
