Over the years, the service industry has taken up a substantial portion of the gross domestic product. Individuals interested in this fact may find many different options that may be confusing to sort through and which may require various experts to better understand as a team.

Thankfully, it should be reasonably easy to figure out the biggest service industries available for your needs. Doing so can help you know where to invest your cash or give you a better idea of what kind of career is safe and potentially lucrative for your needs as an individual.

Business Services: Leads the Biggest Service Industries

Companies that serve businesses take up around $2,098.3 billion or 12% of the national GDP or gross domestic product. This industry is made up of several sub-industries, each of which has different careers and jobs within its heading. Just a few of these elements include:

• Bail Help – Companies like a bail bond service fall under this unique heading. Here, you can get money to pay bail when you’re under trial. This type of service is critical for the legal industry and takes up a significant (though undefined) portion of the business service heading.
• Bankruptcy Help – Another significant portion of business services consists of legal help for bankruptcy. When you go under, a high-quality bankruptcy lawyer can help you. Just as importantly, they can ensure that everything is legal and proper to minimize any complications.
• Staffing Help – If your firm is having a hard time staying staffed, the best staffing agency can help you. Other types of help include training groups that can keep your employees on top of the latest trends in the industry and other professionals who can minimize complex problems with your operation.
• Lawsuit Protection – When you experience legal issues for any reason, business attorneys can help you. They fall under the business service heading because they provide extra help than traditional criminal lawyer professionals and can keep your company from suffering real losses.
• Business Planning – One of the biggest service industries involves planning and execution, a unique range of options that keep your company running. They’ll help to give you a better insight into your operation and minimize any confusing issues, such as poor logistics.

Other services include things like merchant service companies that help to keep goods shipping around the world. This service may also fall under slightly different headings, depending on your legal perception. Just know that this industry helps with keeping your business operational.

Finance and Insurance: Surprisingly One of the Biggest Service Industries

The next most significant service industry is finance and insurance, with a total GDP share of 7.2% or $1,261.2 billion. This fact may be surprising to some. But just think of the vast importance of insurance and financing in our world today. Just a few elements of this industry include:

• The Federal Reserve Bank – This bank accounts for around 3.1% of the total GDP of the nation. That amount is staggering and is likely the most significant single organization that affects the economy. Understanding this fact will help to make it easier for you to get into financing.
• Insurance Adjustments – Car, life, and vehicle insurance make up a large part of this particular sub-set of the insurance field. Almost everybody in the nation has at least one or more of these policies, adding up to a surprisingly huge part of the overall national and global economy.
• Banks – Banks provide essential financial services, such as holding your money, investing it properly to improve its value, and many other unique factors. Without banks, the financial world would come to a crawl, and there would be little that we could do about it.
• Insurance Investigations – Insurance investigators make up a considerable part of the insurance world because they help check into various claims and ensure that excess money is not being spent. Often, they are independent groups that operate outside of insurance carrier professionals.
• Investment Funds – Organizations that create investment funds are vital for improving various elements of the economy and keeping it operating correctly. They can provide direct service to individuals or corporations and help to minimize major downfalls in economic trade.

As you can see, this field is easily one of the biggest service industries on the market. While you might not immediately think of insurance or financing as belonging to this field, it is clear that they provide important and vital services that keep the economy running smoothly and efficiently.

Healthcare Services: A Vital Part of the Economy

Few of the biggest service industries are as crucial to the overall health of the nation as healthcare. With a GDP share of 7.1% or $1,244.2 billion, this element is essential for keeping people healthy and safe from various issues. Just a few segments of this market that thrive include:

• Social Assistance – This sector refers to the hands-on medical care you probably think of when researching healthcare services. Nurses, doctors, nursing homes, and other healthcare professionals all make up this portion of the healthcare industry and must be carefully supported.
• Research and Development – Medical care requires regular research and development to improve its effectiveness. Researchers and scientists help provide this type of help and get significant grants from the federal government and investment from private sectors to improve this element.
• Medical Sales – Many companies within the medical field exist to provide medical technology and devices to doctors and treatment specialists. These sales are critical for the healthcare industry and, if they dip, the whole field ends up suffering as a result of these changes.
• Treatment Creation – Related to research and development, this field takes potential breakthroughs and care options and tests and verifies them to ensure that they are effective. In this way, possible complications are caught and managed before they end up worsening and impacting others.
• Payroll and Operational Costs – The healthcare industry employs so many people in a variety of different ways that the payroll and operational costs for this sector make up a surprisingly significant portion of the GDP. And payroll management firms typically figure into this part of the GDP.

What is important to note is that the so-called social assistance segment makes up only about 1% of the 7.1% contribution to the GDP. Most of the rest of this portion comes from research and development, which does help to make the social aspect thrive and provide high-quality care.

Construction: Another of the Biggest Service Industries

Few people truly understand that construction, in all of its various forms, is one of the biggest service industries. It makes up around 6.36% of the overall GDP or over $1,130 billion. So what kind of fields exist within this industry? Just a few of the most common of these options include:

• Roofing – Every year, millions of roofs get repaired by residential and commercial roofing firms. It is likely the most common type of repair service in the industry. As a result, it isn’t a bad one to invest in if you’re interested in trying out this field for yourself as an individual.
• New Home Construction – Building luxury, custom, or generalized new homes also takes up a very large portion of the overall construction firm. This fact is essential to remember when gauging economic health. When fewer hours are being built, the economy is struggling.
• Repair Help – Various types of repairs (such as electrical or plumbing repair) firms make up a large part of the overall construction market. These companies are essential because they help to maintain the structure of so many buildings and minimize issues with other types of fields as well.
• Debris Management – When you’re operating a business, you likely have a large amount of junk or even trash that you need to get rid of regularly. Trash removal companies and dumpster rental service teams are critical for handling this type of problem and keep your site as clean as possible.
• Pre-Fabricated Home Construction – A large portion of the general population lives in what could be called pre-fabricated homes. Building and transporting these houses to their proper location is all a significant part of this field and is something to consider before investing in it.
• Moving Goods – We put moving companies and other firms in this field because they are often so highly connected with them. As a result, it isn’t uncommon to find that this field takes up a hefty portion of the industry and is something that cannot be ignored or avoided.
• Building Goods Manufacturing – The building and construction industry requires a variety of goods, such as sinks and appliances, to run smoothly. And this industry is vital for the overall construction field and is something that you just can’t ignore if you want to invest appropriately.

When choosing one of these unique options, it is best to go for something that feels right to you. For instance, it might be easier to identify various sub-sectors that you better understand and to seek out these options, such as getting into debris management if this makes sense for you as an investor.

Retail: An Essential Part of the Overall Market

When investigating retail as one of the biggest service industries, it can be tricky to define just how significant this field is when compared to others. For example, if you were to add up the various sub-sectors we’ll list below, it would make up 18.3% of the population or more! But let’s break them down into these different sub-sections to give you a better idea of how they vary and what options you can choose:

• Durable Good Manufacturing – Durable goods make up things like machines, infrastructure elements, appliances, and much more. All of these items help to provide homeowners and others with goods that keep their lives comfortable. This sector currently takes up 6.5% of the field or around $1,135.8 billion. However, this number has gone down in recent years, though it likely will remain stable for the future.
• Wholesale Trading – Wholesaling takes up around $1,037.6 billion or 6.0% of the GDP. It consists of the rapport between manufacturers and the people who deal with their goods. The middle segment of this trade includes many wholesale firms. They buy and deliver these goods to stores, showrooms, and restaurants around the nation. In this way, they help provide a vital service to the industry.
• Retail Trade – Surprisingly, retail trade is not the most critical sector of this market. However, it isn’t far behind the others: it takes up $1,014 billion or 5.8% of the overall GDP. It is true that this industry does tend to dip in crises and has suffered under the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it remains one of the most vital industries in the nation and will thrive again when the pandemic is over.
• Restaurant Trade – Currently, the restaurant industry takes up around $863 billion in 2019 or 4.0% of the GDP. While this field did suffer due to COVID-19 as well, many restaurants did stay open and provide delivery and other types of services. In this way, they have thrived and will become even more significant as the pandemic begins to slow down and become less of a problem.

Thankfully, these service industries remain remarkably successful in 2021 and will likely increase their market share into 2022. That said, it isn’t likely that they’ll ever top 20% cumulatively because other economic factors simply remain too important. That said, each individual field will remain a powerhouse.

So, if you’re interested in the biggest service industries available today, these options are your best choice. By seeking out investments in these fields, you should make it easier to increase your financial stability. You may even want to start up a new business that covers one or more of these fields. Make sure that you fully understand the unique demands of these markets before you begin, though.