January 31, 2002 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Information sector employs 3.7 million

One of the most interesting new sectors in the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is called Information. The industries within the sector transform information into a commodity, distribute that commodity, and provide information services.

[Chart data—TXT]

The information sector’s major components are publishing, motion pictures and sound recording, broadcasting, telecommunications, information services, Internet, and data processing. Under the Standard Industrial Classification system, these were spread across various manufacturing, communications, and services groupings.

The information sector brings together industries that had been credited with much of the dynamic growth experienced in the U.S. economy during the late 1990s. Its 3.7 million employees make it a sector of modest size, ranking 12th among the 20 classifications.

These data are preliminary private sector U.S. totals for the first quarter of 2001 from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages program. Additional information is available from "A first look at employment and wages using NAICS," by David R.H. Hiles, Monthly Labor Review, December 2001.