Professional Services Sector Industry Profile

Companies in this industry provide specialized professional, scientific, and technical activities for others. Major firms include AECOM, Bechtel, DXC, IBM, IQVIA, Jacobs, Latham & Watkins, McKinsey & Company, and Omnicom (all based in the US), as well as Accenture (Ireland); Capgemini (France); and Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and WPP (all based in the UK).

The professional services market is forecast to reach about $95 billion by 2029, according to Statista. The leading markets for professional services include the US, the UK, Japan, China, and Germany. The average spend per employee is projected to reach about $20 in 2024.

The US professional services industry includes about 915,000 establishments (single-location firms and units of multi-location firms) with combined annual revenue of about $1.8 trillion.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Professional services providers face a number of challenges, from dependence on corporate spending and trends in the global economy to customers or potential customers choosing to do the work themselves. While the average business may not decide to in-source architectural plans for a new office, accounting, marketing, and IT services can all be brought in-house and often are.

Large companies are better positioned to win national accounts. Small companies can compete effectively by offering highly specialized services or focusing on a single geographic region or local market; they typically also have less overhead, which allows them to charge less. The US industry is highly fragmented: the 50 largest firms account for ...