What Is a Service Industry?

What Is a Service Industry? Overview and Examples

By Kristi Waterworth – Updated Dec 4, 2025 at 9:20 PM EST | Fact-checked by Frank Bass

Key Points

Of U.S. workers, 80% are employed in the service industry, spanning many sectors.
The service industry includes logistics, healthcare, and tech, affecting diverse investments.
Investors can hedge risks by diversifying within various service industry sectors.

The service industry is all around us, even if it's become so ubiquitous that we don't even notice it anymore. In the United States, almost 80% of the workforce is employed in some kind of service industry job, often in functions you may not even consider the service industry. Read on to learn more about this industry.

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Person doing maintenance on a washing machine. — Image source: Getty Images.

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About the Author

Kristi Waterworth has been a contributing real estate and financial expert at The Motley Fool, covering real estate, investing, and personal finance topics, since 2020. Kristi has been interviewed by various TV media outlets and podcasts for her real estate investing expertise – from residential real estate to digital real estate and everything in between. Kristi’s journalist career spans over 25 years, and she has written about real estate investing, homeownership, and home construction specifically for the last decade. She was also previously a licensed Realtor and general building contractor before the Great Recession and housing market collapse. She holds a bachelor’s degree in American history from Columbia College in Missouri.

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