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Industries at a Glance
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Information: NAICS 51
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About the Information sector
The information sector is part of the service-providing industries supersector group.
The Information sector comprises establishments engaged in the following processes: (a) producing and distributing information and cultural products, (b) providing the means to transmit or distribute these products as well as data or communications, and (c) processing data.
The main components of this sector are the publishing industries, including software publishing, and both traditional publishing and publishing exclusively on the Internet; the motion picture and sound recording industries; the broadcasting industries, including traditional broadcasting and those broadcasting exclusively over the Internet; the telecommunications industries; Web search portals, data processing industries, and the information services industries.
The Information sector groups three types of establishments: (1) those engaged in producing and distributing information and cultural products; (2) those that provide the means to transmit or distribute these products as well as data or communications; and (3) those that process data.
North American Industry Classification System
The information sector consists of these subsectors:
- Publishing Industries (except Internet): NAICS 511
- Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries: NAICS 512
- Broadcasting (except Internet): NAICS 515
- Telecommunications: NAICS 517
- Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services: NAICS 518
- Other Information Services: NAICS 519
NOTE: The NAICS 2002 subsector Internet Publishing and Broadcasting: NAICS 516 has been discontinued in NAICS 2007 and the establishments that had been classified in this subsector have been moved into Other Information Services: NAICS 519.
Workforce Statistics
This section provides information relating to employment and unemployment in information. While most data are obtained from employer or establishment surveys, information on industry unemployment comes from a national survey of households. The following tables present an overview of the industry including the number of jobs, the unemployment rate of those previously employed in the industry, job openings and labor turnover, union membership and representation, gross job gains and losses, data for occupations common to the industry, and projections of occupational employment change.
Employment, Unemployment, and Openings, Hires, and Separations
| Data series | Back data |
Aug. 2024 |
Sep. 2024 |
Oct. 2024 |
Nov. 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Employment (in thousands) |
|||||
Employment, all employees (seasonally adjusted) |
|
2,991 | 2,992 | (p)2,986 | (p)2,986 |
Employment, production and nonsupervisory employees (seasonally adjusted) |
|
2,400 | 2,401 | (p)2,402 | (p)2,391 |
Unemployment |
|||||
|
|
6.0% | 3.8% | 2.7% | 2.3% | |
Job openings, hires, and separations (in thousands) |
|||||
|
|
111 | 123 | (p)208 | ||
|
|
77 | 86 | (p)82 | ||
|
|
100 | 73 | (p)66 | ||
|
Footnotes |
|||||
(Source: Current Employment Statistics, Current Population Survey, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey)
Union Membership and Representation
| Data series | Back data |
2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Union membership and representation |
|||||
Members of unions (percent of wage and salary workers) |
|
9.3% | 10.0% | 8.4% | 7.4% |
Represented by unions (percent of wage and salary workers) |
|
10.3% | 11.1% | 9.1% | 7.8% |
(Source: Current Population Survey)
Dynamic Changes in Employment
| Data series | Back data |
2nd quarter 2023 |
3rd quarter 2023 |
4th quarter 2023 |
1st quarter 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dynamic changes in employment (in thousands) |
|||||
|
|
149 | 134 | 157 | 146 | |
|
|
221 | 197 | 160 | 139 | |
(Source: Business Employment Dynamics)
Employment by Occupation
| Data series | Employment, 2023 |
|---|---|
| 124,600 | |
Telecommunications equipment installers and repairers, except line installers |
109,320 |
(Source: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics)
Projections
For projected (future) employment estimates, see the National Employment Matrix, which includes employment estimates by industry and occupation for information.
(Source: Office of Occupational Statistics and Employment Projections)
Earnings and Hours
This section presents data on employee earnings and weekly hours. The latest industry averages of hourly earnings and weekly hours, as well as weekly earnings by union membership status, are shown. In addition, recent hourly and annual earnings are shown for occupations commonly found in information. This section also contains information on the average cost of benefits paid by employers, as well as recent rates of change in wages and total compensation.
Earnings and Hours of All Employees
| Data series | Back data |
Aug. 2024 |
Sep. 2024 |
Oct. 2024 |
Nov. 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
$50.38 | $50.42 | (p)$51.27 | (p)$51.49 | |
|
|
36.5 | 36.6 | (p)37.0 | (p)36.7 | |
|
Footnotes |
|||||
(Source: Current Employment Statistics)
Earnings and Hours of Production and Nonsupervisory Employees
| Data series | Back data |
Aug. 2024 |
Sep. 2024 |
Oct. 2024 |
Nov. 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
$40.85 | $40.86 | (p)$41.53 | (p)$41.53 | |
|
|
35.5 | 35.4 | (p)35.4 | (p)35.6 | |
|
Footnotes |
|||||
(Source: Current Employment Statistics)
Earnings by Occupation
| Data series | Wages, 2023 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hourly | Annual | |||
| Median | Mean | Median | Mean | |
| $22.33 | $24.95 | $46,450 | $51,900 | |
Telecommunications equipment installers and repairers, except line installers |
$30.69 | $32.16 | $63,840 | $66,890 |
(Source: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics)
Employee Benefits
This section presents data on the incidence (the percentage of workers with access to and participation in employer-provided benefit plans) and provisions of selected employee benefits from the National Compensation Survey. More Benefits estimates are also accessible from the Benefits database, the archived NCS publications page, and the complete Employee Benefits Excel dataset (XLSX).
| Data series | Access | Participation | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Back data |
2024 | Back data |
2024 | |
Private industry |
||||
|
|
92 |
|
83 | |
|
|
24 |
|
18 | |
|
|
91 |
|
82 | |
(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)
| Data series | After 1 year of service | After 20 years of service | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Back data |
2024 | Back data |
2024 | |
Mean number of vacation days for private industry workers without consolidated leave plans |
|
12 |
|
22 |
(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)
| Data series | Back data |
2024 |
|---|---|---|
Percent of private industry workers with access to employer-sponsored benefits |
||
|
|
93 | |
|
|
96 | |
|
|
97 | |
(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)
Employer Compensation Costs
| Data series | Back data |
4th quarter 2023 |
1st quarter 2024 |
2nd quarter 2024 |
3rd quarter 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Private industry |
|||||
12-month percent change |
|||||
|
|
3.4% | 3.2% | 2.0% | 3.1% | |
|
|
3.4% | 2.9% | 2.1% | 3.5% | |
3-month percent change |
|||||
|
|
0.7% | 1.3% | -0.1% | 1.2% | |
|
|
0.9% | 1.0% | 0.1% | 1.5% | |
(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)
| Data series | Private industry | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compensation component ($ per hour worked) |
Percent of total compensation | |||
| Back data |
2nd quarter 2024 | Back data |
2nd quarter 2024 | |
|
|
75.76 |
|
100.0 | |
|
|
48.89 |
|
64.5 | |
|
|
26.87 |
|
35.5 | |
|
|
6.88 |
|
9.1 | |
|
|
3.47 |
|
4.6 | |
|
|
7.79 |
|
10.3 | |
(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)
Union Membership and Representation
| Data series | Back data |
Median weekly earnings | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | ||
Union membership and representation |
|||||
|
|
$1,356 | $1,378 | $1,501 | $1,572 | |
|
|
$1,403 | $1,568 | $1,610 | $1,689 | |
|
|
$1,390 | $1,527 | $1,587 | $1,702 | |
|
|
$1,348 | $1,370 | $1,492 | $1,562 | |
(Source: Current Population Survey)
Work-related Fatalities, Injuries, and Illnesses
This section presents data for the industry on the number of workplace fatalities and the rates of workplace injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers in information. An injury or illness is considered to be work-related if an event or exposure in the work environment either caused or contributed to the resulting condition or significantly aggravated a pre-existing condition.
| Data series | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Fatalities |
||||
| 30 | 32 | 38 | 49 | |
|
Blank cells indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria. |
||||
| Data series | 2023 |
|---|---|
Rate of injury and illness cases per 100 full-time workers |
|
| 1.0 | |
Cases involving days away from work, job restriction, or transfer |
0.6 |
| 0.5 | |
| 0.1 | |
|
Blank cells indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria. |
|
(Source: Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities)
Prices
This section provides industry-specific pricing information. The producer price index measures the percentage change in prices that domestic producers receive for goods and services. The prices included in the producer price index are from the first commercial transaction.
| Data series | Back data |
Jul. 2024 |
Aug. 2024 |
Sep. 2024 |
Oct. 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
(p)116.010 | (p)115.782 | (p)115.751 | (p)116.617 | |
Percent change from previous month |
(p)0.9% | (p)-0.2% | (p)0.0% | (p)0.7% | |
|
Footnotes |
|||||
(Source: Producer Price Indexes)
Workplace Trends
This section presents data on the number of establishments and the number of establishments experiencing job gains or job losses in information.
Establishments
| Data series | Back data |
3rd quarter 2023 |
4th quarter 2023 |
1st quarter 2024 |
2nd quarter 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number of establishments |
|||||
|
|
287,113 | 290,457 | (p)295,397 | (p)299,176 | |
|
|
5,106 | 5,106 | (p)5,134 | (p)5,140 | |
|
|
306 | 306 | (p)305 | (p)306 | |
|
|
151 | 146 | (p)145 | (p)149 | |
Establishments with changes in employment (in thousands) |
|||||
With job gains (seasonally adjusted) |
|
44 | 42 | 42 | |
With job losses (seasonally adjusted) |
|
50 | 50 | 44 | |
|
Footnotes |
|||||
(Source: Business Employment Dynamics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages)
Productivity
This section presents productivity and related data for the industry, presented as the percent change from the previous year. Measures of total factor productivity (TFP) compare growth in output to the growth in a combination of inputs that include labor, capital, energy, materials, and services. Measures of labor productivity, or output per hour, compare the growth in output to the growth in hours worked.
| Data series | Back data |
2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
1.5 | 4.1 | -0.1 | 2.5 | |
|
|
3.7 | 11.1 | 6.9 | 4.0 | |
|
|
2.2 | 6.7 | 7.0 | 1.5 | |
|
|
5.4 | 5.4 | 7.4 | 7.6 | |
|
|
-4.6 | 7.6 | 5.5 | -1.7 | |
|
|
10.3 | 4.0 | 1.5 | 6.3 |
(Source: Productivity)
Data extracted on: December 11, 2024