Service industries: Key Economic Indicators

The service industries include the retail sector, the financial sector, the public sector, business administration, leisure and cultural activities.

The service industries accounted for 80% of total UK economic output (Gross Value Added) and 82% of employment in April-June 2021.

Services Output

There was a fall of 0.2% in the Index of Services between February and March 2022.

There was an increase of 0.4% in services in the three months to March 2022 compared with the three months to December 2021.

In the three months to March 2022, compared with the three months to March 2021, services output increased by 9.9%.

Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI)

In the S&P Global/CIPS PMI, a value of 50 means that there is no change in activity compared to the previous month. Values above 50 indicate an expansion, and values below 50 a contraction.

The UK services PMI was 58.9 in April 2022, down from 62.6 in March to its lowest level since January. This ended a run of three months of increases, as worries about the cost of living and economic uncertainty caused by the war in Ukraine had an impact on client demand and business optimism.