News Release
Gross Domestic Product by Industry, 2nd quarter, 2015
Finance and insurance; professional, scientific, and technical services; and wholesale trade were the leading contributors to the increase in U.S. economic growth in the second quarter of 2015, according to statistics on the breakout of gross domestic product (GDP) by industry released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). Overall, 18 of 22 industry groups contributed to the 3.9 percent increase in real GDP in the second quarter.
- Finance and insurance real value added—a measure of an industry’s contribution to GDP—increased 12.4 percent in the second quarter, after decreasing 3.8 percent in the first quarter. The second quarter growth primarily reflected an increase in Federal Reserve banks, credit intermediation, and related activities.
- Professional, scientific, and technical services increased 7.6 percent, after increasing 4.4 percent, primarily reflecting an increase in miscellaneous professional, scientific, and technical services, which includes industries like architectural and engineering services; scientific research and development services; and management consulting services.
- Wholesale trade increased 8.4 percent, after decreasing 1.0 percent.
Other highlights
- Transportation and warehousing services increased 10.4 percent, after decreasing 15.6 percent in the first quarter. This was the largest increase in the industry group since the third quarter of 2010, and was primarily attributed to air transportation.
- Construction increased 9.8 percent, after increasing 1.4 percent.
- Mining decreased 17.9 percent, after increasing 15.2 percent. The second quarter decrease primarily reflected a decrease in the oil and gas extraction industry.
Gross output by industry
Real gross output—a measure of an industry's sales or receipts, which includes sales to final users in the economy (GDP) and sales to other industries (intermediate inputs)—increased in the second quarter. This reflected increases in real gross output for both the private goods- and services-producing sectors, as well as the government sector.
- Construction increased 23.5 percent, after increasing 5.7 percent in the first quarter. This was the eighth quarterly increase in the last nine quarters.
- Professional, scientific, and technical services increased 4.0 percent, after decreasing 2.0 percent. The second quarter increase was primarily attributed to legal services.
- Mining decreased 26 percent, after decreasing 9.7 percent. This was the third consecutive quarterly decrease, and was the largest decrease since the second quarter of 2009, reflecting decreases in both oil and gas extraction and support activities for mining.
Annual Revision of the Industry Economic Accounts
The estimates released today reflect the results of the annual revision of the industry economic accounts in conjunction with newly available statistics for GDP by industry for the second quarter of 2015. Additional information on this revision will be available in an article in the December 2015 issue of the Survey of Current Business.
This year's annual revision includes revised estimates beginning with the first quarter of 2012. The revision incorporates source data that are more complete and reliable than those previously available. Major improvements introduced with this revision include:
- Results from the 2015 annual revision of the national income and product accounts and international transactions accounts.
- Incorporation of newly available and revised source data (e.g., Census Bureau's Service Annual Survey, the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, and the Department of Treasury's Statistics of Income).
- Expansion of quarterly GDP by industry detail. Estimates of value added and gross output are now available in an underlying detail interactive data application for 71 industries.
- Expansion of the annual components of value added. Estimates of net operating surplus are now available in an underlying detail excel file.
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BEA's national, international, regional, and industry estimates; BEA news releases; and related articles in the Survey of Current Business are available for free on BEA's Web site at www.bea.gov. The entire historical time series for these estimates can be accessed in BEA's Interactive Data Application at www.bea.gov/itable/. Stay informed about BEA developments by signing up for our email subscription service or following us on Twitter @BEA_News. You also can access BEA data by registering for our Data Application Programming Interface, or API. (www.bea.gov/API/signup/index.cfm).
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BEA's news release schedule is available at www.bea.gov/newsreleases/2015rd.htm
Next release -- January 21, 2016 at 8:30 A.M. EST for:
Gross Domestic Product by Industry: Third Quarter 2015