Industry Overview
The Knowledge Industries are comprised of companies offering products, services and solutions that enable individuals and enterprises to be more effective in an increasingly global, hyper-competitive, information-intensive and fast-changing marketplace. These macro trends, combined with an expanding services-based economy that requires a more skilled workforce, are driving increased demand for additional education, training and other information services.
Many leading sectors of the U.S. economy are represented within the Knowledge Industries including the education, information, training and business services sectors. The Knowledge Industries are an integral part of the U.S. economy, representing annual expenditures of approximately $1.3 trillion or over 11% of GDP—second only in size to the healthcare industry.
Companies in the Knowledge Industries have been growing rapidly over the past several years and are expected to continue experiencing high growth rates in the future. The following are examples of sub-sectors within the Knowledge Industries.
- K-12
- Postsecondary
- At-Risk and Special Education
- Instructional Materials
- Testing and Assessment
- Corporate Training
- Professional Certification and Continuing Education
- Language Training
- Business-to-Business and Professional Publishing
- Professional Information Databases and Research
- Tradeshows and Conferences
- Human Resources and Business Process Outsourcing
- Consulting and Staffing
- Marketing Services