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Kirk Degler/Mary Myrick
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"Other Services" -- From Car Washes to Diet Centers -- Add
Up to Big Business, Census Bureau Reports
Receipts and revenues of U.S. businesses providing "other services" --
business, personal and non-profit -- added up to more than $265 billion in
1997, the Commerce Department's Census Bureau reported today.
Examples of "other services" range from automotive repair shops, diet
centers and coin-operated laundries, to dating services, funeral homes and
human rights organizations.
In 1997, the United States had more than 520,000 separate business locations
that provided such services. They employed about 3.3 million people.
States with the highest receipts and revenues from "other services"
businesses were California with $32.4 billion and New York with $26.4 billion.
Reports were released on the Internet that further detail these businesses,
including data for 65 specific kinds of businesses, all 50 states, the
District of Columbia and 395 metropolitan areas. The reports are part of
the series titled 1997 Economic Census, Geographic Area Series, Other
Services (Except Public Administration).
Highlights from the "other services" reports include:
Repair and maintenance
- Repair and maintenance was the largest "other services" subsector, with
$105 billion in receipts. General automotive repair businesses, at
$26 billion, accounted for almost one-quarter of this amount and employed
290,634 people at 77,751 locations.
- The commercial and industrial equipment repair and maintenance industry, a
new industry classification under the North American Industry Classification
System (NAICS), generated $18 billion in receipts nationally and employed
166,962 people at 20,290 locations; Texas with nearly $2 billion in receipts,
led all states.
- The electronic and precision-equipment repair and maintenance industry
took in $15 billion in receipts and employed 137,227 workers at
17,634 locations; California, with $2.3 billion, led the nation.
Personal and laundry services
- Receipts for personal and laundry service industries totaled $58 billion,
led by the dry-cleaning and laundry industry group with $18 billion.
Dry-cleaning and laundry services employed 395,408 workers at
44,782 locations.
- The funeral homes and cemeteries and crematories industries generated
$13 billion in receipts, employing 164,823 people at 23,015 locations.
Grant-making and civic, professional and related not-for-profit organizations
- Grant-making and giving services generated $49 billion in revenue, primarily
from contributions, gifts and investment income. These organizations
employed 104,807 people at 11,906 locations.
- Business, professional and similar membership organizations raised more than
$36 billion in revenues from dues and other sources and employed
311,491 workers at 48,375 locations. New York led all states with nearly
$6 billion in revenues, followed by the District of Columbia (a state
equivalent for statistical purposes), with $3.8 billion.
- Social advocacy organizations, another new industry classification under
NAICS, attracted more than $7.5 billion in revenues and employed
85,041 workers at 10,120 locations. The District of Columbia led all states
in revenues in this industry, with nearly $1.2 billion, while California
was tops in number of employees with 9,268. Social advocacy organizations
include human rights, and environmental, conservation and wildlife
organizations.
The reports present data separately for firms subject to and exempt from
federal income taxes. They provide national, state and metropolitan-area
data for both taxable and tax-exempt firms. For taxable firms, the reports
also provide county and place data.
The 1997 Economic Census marks the premiere of NAICS, a new business
classification system. It replaces the Standard Industrial Classification
(SIC) system begun 60 years ago. The Other Services (Except Public
Administration) sector is a new industry group in NAICS. Religious and
political organizations and labor unions, although part of this sector,
are not covered in the economic census.
Data compiled for the Other Services (Except Public Administration) sector
are subject to nonsampling errors. Nonsampling errors can be attributed to
many sources: inability to identify all cases in the universe; definition
and classification difficulties; differences in the interpretation of
questions; errors in recording or coding the data obtained; and other errors
of collection, response, coverage, processing and estimation for missing or
misreported data.
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