US Information Sector
Industry Profile Report
Dive Deep into the industry with a 25+ page industry report (pdf format) including the following chapters
Industry Overview Current Conditions, Industry Structure, How Firms Operate, Industry Trends, Credit Underwriting & Risks, and Industry Forecast.
Call Preparation Call Prep Questions, Industry Terms, and Weblinks.
Financial Insights Working Capital, Capital Financing, Business Valuation, and Financial Benchmarks.
Industry Profile Excerpts
Industry Overview
The 163,868 establishments in the US information sector produce, manage, and distribute information, including news, entertainment, cultural programming, and data. The sector includes industries that provide the infrastructure and systems to transmit and distribute content, data, and communications, as well as those that allow customers to search for, store, and process data.
Fads and Trends
Success in the media and publishing industries is largely dependent on consumer acceptance, which is subject to fads and trends.
Evolving Technology
The information sector relies on technology, which can evolve rapidly and fundamentally change the dynamics of individual industries.
Industry size & Structure
The information sector is comprised of 163,868 establishments that employ 3 million workers and generate $2.2 trillion in annual revenue, according to government sources.
- The information sector represents 5.4% of the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employs 1.3% of the country's workers.
- The sector is concentrated at the top with the 20 largest firms representing 51% of revenue, but it is fragmented at the bottom.
- In addition to employer establishments, the information sector has 359,000 owner-operated establishments with no employees. Subsectors with the highest numbers of nonemployer establishments are motion picture and sound recording (38%); publishing (18%); and data processing, hosting, and related services (13%). The owners of nonemployer establishments typically perform the work and may outsource support functions like marketing and accounting.
- The information sector shed about 31,000 establishments in 2021, which equals about 11.4% of existing establishments, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, the sector added about 54,000 new establishments, which is equivalent to 19.8% of existing establishments. As a result, the sector had a growth rate of 8.4%.
- The information sector is forecast to grow its employment base by 7.4% overall in 2021-2031, which is higher than the national average of 5.3% for all jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Industry Forecast
US Information Sector Industry Growth
Recent Developments
Jul 18, 2024 - Labor Costs Increase
- US information sector employment and wages for nonsupervisory employees increased slightly during the first six months of 2024, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Information sector revenue increased 4.46% year over year and 0.24% quarter over quarter during Q4 2023 to $571,619 billion, according to the US Census Bureau.
- Wireless-only is by far the dominant telecommunications service in US households, according to the US Census Bureau. About 47.7% of US adults lived in a wireless-only household and 43.7% in a household with both landline and wireless service in 2015. By 2022, the share of adults living in wireless-only households had jumped to 72.6% while the share in households with both landline and wireless had dipped to 25.4%. The share of adults living in landline-only households dropped from 5.8% in 2015 to 1.3% in 2022.
- Internet publishing and broadcasting and web search portals industry revenue increased 181.9% from $120.2 billion in 2015 to $338.7 billion in 2022, according to the US Census Bureau. The industry has been one of the information sector's largest revenue contributors. The share of adults who reported using the internet increased from 86% in 2015 to 95% in 2023, according to the Pew Research Center. Revenue of information sector industries not dependent on the internet to disseminate their services, such as radio stations and newspaper publishers, did not enjoy the same revenue increases.
- Businesses in the information sector reported greater levels of artificial intelligence (AI) use than the national average, according to the US Census Bureau's most recent Business Trends and Outlook Survey. About 13.8% of information sector businesses indicated that they are currently using the technology while only 3.8% of all businesses surveyed reported using it. Businesses in the professional, scientific, and technical services sector also reported a large share (9.1%) of AI adopters compared to overall totals.
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