Service Jobs - Professional, Scientific, Technical

Professional, Scientific and Technical Services (revised fall 2024)

The North American Industry Classification Manual defines the Professional, Scientific and Technical Services sector as “establishments that specialize in performing professional, scientific and technical activities for others.” They go on to explain that establishments in this sector use processes where human capital is the major input. “Establishments rely on employee skills and knowledge to deliver expertise to clients.” At the end of 2023 there were 10.825 million jobs in professional, scientific and technical services.

Most of the professional occupations that require specialized degree training have employment somewhere among these services, although teaching and medicine are not in this sector. Architecture and Engineering Services establishments employ many architects and engineers and some other professional occupations like surveyor. The close association between architectural services and architects makes it easy to forget the one is a firm selling a service and the other is a person with a career and an occupation. It is the same way for legal services and lawyers; computer design services and computer software engineers. Other types of professional service establishments are associated with other professional occupations: accountants, management consultants, graphic designers, interior designers, life science researchers, physical science researchers, veterinarians and others.

Professional service employment has been expanding at faster rates than national employment generally going back to 1990. Part of the increase of jobs in these sectors results from the decline in manufacturing that need professional services. For example, manufacturing needs engineers but the decline of manufacturing puts pressure on engineers to move into professional service firms and sell services to contracting clients rather than perform engineering services as employees of manufacturing firms.

The Big Five of Professional Services

Establishments doing computer systems design services, architecture and engineering services, legal services, management consulting services, and accounting, bookkeeping and tax preparation services all have over a million jobs. Computer systems design and related services more than doubled during the 1990’s and passed the 1 million jobs mark in 1999. Computing passed the 2 million mark in 2016 and continues as the biggest employer with just over 2.5 million jobs by 2024; jobs have more increased more than six times since 1990 when employment was only 413.5 thousand.

Architecture and engineering services was the biggest of the professional services until 2008, but two years of decline leaves it in second place among professional services with 1.660 million jobs by 2024. About 70.2 percent of architects and landscape architects work in this sector, but only around a third of engineering jobs are in engineering firms. The largest share of engineers continues to work in the manufacturing industry. Because of the manufacturing decline more engineers are finding jobs in this sector.

Legal service jobs are growing at a slower rate than the national average which has remained above 1.1 million but always below 1.2 million jobs since 2002. People would appreciate lawyers more if they would think about the different legal specialties: bankruptcy, divorce, crime, personal injury, medical malpractice. As we can see many lawyers spend their professional life in the middle of somebody else’s argument. Bickering, wrangling, hectoring fill their days. Arguments and other legal business in 2024 employed 1.18 million in the legal services. An average of 51.7 percent of the jobs at legal services firms are actually lawyers, which is about 443,900 lawyers in legal services firms. Other lawyers work for business and government and another large group of 114,300 are classified as self employed.

Management consulting employment has jumped sixfold since 1990 with a growth rate five times the national average. It was just behind legal services in 2008 with a million jobs, but now it has 1.867 million jobs. Management analyst is by far the most important professional occupation in management consulting with 222.3 thousand jobs and a higher growth rate than national employment. Other professionals like accountant, computer programmers, business operations specialists work here but they typically have a smaller share of the jobs. The manual of Standard Occupational Classifications describes management analysts as people who “Conduct organizational studies and evaluations, design systems and procedures, conduct work simplifications and measurement studies, and prepare operations and procedures manuals to assist management in operating more efficiently and effectively.”

Accounting, bookkeeping, tax preparation and payroll services firms have 1.149 million jobs with 551.2 thousand of the jobs in specialized CPA firms. CPA jobs at accounting firms are growing while jobs at specialized tax preparation and payroll service firms are growing faster, much faster. Tax preparation firms like H & R Block go into this sub-sector so that tax preparation gets counted as professional employment even though tax preparation firms typically run their own training programs and Certified Public Accountants are not necessary. Having employees complicates finances and now payroll processing firms are available to do payroll processing. Other types of clerical or detail work may go along with tax preparation and payroll processing, but these firms do not offer the services of CPA’s. Employment at non-CPA firms is now more than CPA firms.

The Smaller Four

Scientific Research services employed 935.9 thousand in 2024. Just over 90 percent of this employment is in physical, engineering and life sciences research with humanities and social science research the rest. The professional jobs tend to require a master’s degree or Ph.D. in specialized work like chemistry, microbiology, or biophysics. Research services has 13 occupations requiring doctorate degrees with 65.4 thousand employed at the end of 2023, more than any of the other professional, scientific, and technical services industries. There are also a number of technician jobs that require at least an associate’s degree, but graduate degrees are necessary for much of the work. Advertising and related services includes public relations agencies and media representatives in addition to firms creating and conducting advertising campaigns. Just over 508 thousand worked here in 2024. Advertising jobs overlap with many of the same occupations as publishing and broadcasting, but also specialized design mentioned below, with art and design jobs as multimedia artists, graphic designers, writers and authors.

Specialized design services employed 153.3 thousand in 2024 with most of their professional employment as graphic designers with 22,200 jobs and interior designers 28,100 jobs. Graphic designers need computer skills to go with creative skills to produce appealing and attracting layout for print media. Industrial designers help in the development of products that meet customer needs. Products vary from children’s toys, home appliances, medical equipment and similar products.

The well known categories of professional services are behind us. The few smaller services are bundled into a category, other. The biggest of these remainders in terms of employment is veterinary services with 462.6 thousand jobs. That figure is up from 128.5 thousand in 1990. Staffing at veterinary service firms shows 72 percent of jobs as veterinarians, veterinary technicians, veterinary assistants and non-farm animal caretakers. Another 404.7 thousand are employed in professional loose ends: 74.2 thousand jobs in marketing research, polling and public opinion firms, 48.8 thousand jobs in photographic service firms which employ more than 25.9 thousand professional photographers; 98.3 thousand photographers are defined as self employed. A few thousand more jobs at appraisal firms, arbitration services, and weather services round out the professional jobs in these sub sectors.

Total the career employment needing college degree skills in all the professional, scientific and technical services industries and it comes to 6.026 million jobs. These are jobs that typically require at least baccalaureate degree training for entry, but time, and on-the-job experience helps to perfect and enhance entry skills. Developing new skills and the chance for advancement go with these professional jobs. Lawyer, programmer, network administrator, systems analyst, architect, engineer, surveyor, accountant, management analyst, graphic designer, writer, scientific researcher, veterinarian, photographer are all important jobs in professional services.

Professional services jobs requiring college degree skills make up 55.7 percent of all jobs in professional services. Other jobs are jobs supporting the work sold to clients. For example, Office and Administrative Support occupations average 14.3 percent across all professional services. These are the jobs like receptionist, office clerk and secretary that make up office work in all industries as well as service providing industries. Managerial positions average seven percent of staffing at professional, scientific and technical firms.

Remember that education has 9.357 million career and professional jobs and there are 6.026 million more of them here. However, professional services have the second highest number of jobs requiring college degree skills of any of the service industries. None of health care, information services, finance and insurance services have as many college degree jobs as either professional services or education. All levels of government, federal, state and local, have many jobs requiring college degree skills, but government jobs outside of education do not have as many professional jobs as either education or professional services. Professional services have 10.825 million jobs. Combining education and professional services employment brings us to 25.2 million services jobs. With a total of 134.453 million service jobs we’ve got 109.262 million more service jobs to fill, but not to worry, we have 16 other sub sectors of services and service employment. There are jobs in health care, finance and insurance and information services among them.