Producer services are a set of industries that have markets primarily with businesses and governments, as opposed to markets mostly with households. These services include accounting, engineering, architecture, legal services, real estate, insurance, financial services, management consulting, advertising, design, administrative support services, temporary help, and research. In contrast, services such as retail trade, health care, education, repair of automobiles, and movie theaters have households as their primary source of demand. There are varying definitions of producer services; some include parts of transportation services and real estate and insurance. Clearly, some industries that are dominantly part of the producer services sector also have household markets, such as legal and banking services.

Producer services have grown rapidly in recent years, employing 40 million people in the United States ...