Service industries: Key Economic Indicators

The ONS has announced it will revise UK GDP data, with growth in 2020 and 2021 being stronger than data currently suggests. These revisions will also affect data for the services industry. This page will be updated on 12 October with the revised data, but until then reports the unrevised data.

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

The service industries accounted for 79% of total UK economic output (Gross Value Added) in April–June 2023 and 83% of employment in January–March 2023.

Services Output

There was a fall of 0.5% in the Index of Services between June and July 2023.

Services output increased by 0.1% in the three months to July compared with the three months to April.

In the three months to July 2023, compared with the three months to July 2022, services output increased by 0.1%.

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 (PDF) in the flash estimate for September was 47.2, down from 49.5 in August to its lowest point since January 2021. Levels of new work fell sharply, and employment decreased for the first time in five months. Prices charged by the sector continued to increase, but input cost inflation decreased.