Economic Sectors - Information Industry, Naics 51

The production and distribution of information falls under the information supersector of the American economy. This sector includes book and software publishing, Internet service providers, and television broadcasting, as well as the motion picture and sound recording industries. Although the information sector is relatively small, representing only about 2.6% of employment and 1.9% of business establishments, with the expansion of media outlets and Web publishing in the late twentieth century, this sector increased in its impact and importance in the economy both nationally and globally.

According to the 2003 Annual Survey, employer firms in the information industry brought in $889.3 billion in 2003. Newspaper, periodical, book, database, and greeting card publishers earned a combined $142.5 billion, while software publishers earned $89.9 billion. The motion picture and video industries totaled $64 billion in 2003, and the sound recording industry, including music publishing, recording, and distribution, amounted to $13.8 billion. The 2003 Service Annual Survey also reported that radio and television broadcasting combined to bring in $51.9 billion in 2003, while cable networks and program distribution earned an additional $90.5 billion. The telecommunications sector, including cellular service, paging, and other wired and wireless communications, totaled $348 billion in 2003, according to the Census Bureau survey. Information services such as news syndicates, online information services, and data processing, combined to bring in $88.6 billion in 2003.

According to the BLS in Industry at a Glance, employment in the information supersector averaged 3,198,000 in 2003, which showed growth from 2,738,000 in 1994 but was somewhat lower than the peak employment of 3,631,000 in 2000. Nonsupervisory employees in the information sector worked an average 36.2 hours per week, which was above the national average of 33.7 for workers in the private sector overall. Unemployment in this sector, at 6.8%, was slightly higher than the national average of 6% in 2003. Wages of nonsupervisory employees in the information sector, at more than $21 per hour in 2004, were above the national average of $15.35 for production workers, and had risen 34% from the 1994 level of $15.68.