Understanding the administrative, support, waste management and remediation services sector
The services to buildings and dwellings industry group accounts for 21 percent of the sector’s employment within Indiana, while employment services accounts for half of the sector's employment in the state.
Most discussions of industry sectors mention the “administrative and support and waste management and remediation services” sector. But what exactly is that? This article discusses the types of firms that are included, how it compares to other sectors and how its employment is changing over time. (For the sake of brevity, we will use the term “administrative and waste management sector” interchangeably with the sector’s official name.)
Definition
The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) defines the sector this way:
“The administrative and support and waste management and remediation services sector comprises establishments performing routine support activities for the day-to-day operations of other organizations. These essential activities are often undertaken in-house by establishments in many sectors of the economy. The establishments in this sector specialize in one or more of these support activities and provide these services to clients in a variety of industries and, in some cases, to households. Activities performed include: office administration, hiring and placing of personnel, document preparation and similar clerical services, solicitation, collection, security and surveillance services, cleaning, and waste disposal services.”1
Table 1 details the five-digit industries included in this sector, with the four-digit industry groups shown in blue.
Table 1: Industries within the administrative, support, waste management and remediation services sector
| Code | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Office Administrative Services | ||
| 56111 | Office Administrative Services | Provide a range of day-to-day office administrative services, such as financial planning; billing and recordkeeping; personnel; and physical distribution and logistics for others on a contract or fee basis. These establishments do not provide operating staff to carry out the complete operations of a business. |
| Facilities Support Services | ||
| 56121 | Facilities Support Services | Provide operating staff to perform a combination of support services within a client's facilities. Establishments typically provide a combination of services, such as janitorial, maintenance, trash disposal, guard and security, mail routing, reception, laundry, and related services to support operations within facilities. These establishments provide operating staff to carry out these support activities, but are not involved with or responsible for the core business or activities of the client. Establishments providing facilities (except computer and/or data processing) operation support services and establishments providing private jail services or operating correctional facilities (i.e., jails) on a contract or fee basis are included in this industry. |
| Employment Services | ||
| 56131 | Employment Placement Agencies and Executive Search Services | Provide one of the following: (1) listing employment vacancies and referring or placing applicants for employment; or (2) providing executive search, recruitment and placement services. |
| 56132 | Temporary Help Services | Supply workers to clients' businesses for limited periods of time to supplement the workforce of the client. The individuals provided are employees of the temporary help service establishment. However, these establishments do not provide direct supervision of their employees at the clients' work sites. |
| 56133 | Professional Employer Organizations | Provide human resources and human resource management services to client businesses. Establishments operate in a co-employment relationship with client businesses or organizations and are specialized in performing a wide range of human resource and personnel management duties, such as payroll, payroll tax, benefits administration, workers' compensation, unemployment and human resource administration. Professional employer organizations (PEOs) are responsible for payroll, including withholding and remitting employment-related taxes, for some or all of the employees of their clients, and also serve as the employer of those employees for benefits and related purposes. |
| Business Support Services | ||
| 56141 | Document Preparation Services | Provide one or more of the following: (1) letter or resume writing; (2) document editing or proofreading; (3) typing, word processing or desktop publishing; and (4) stenography (except court reporting or stenotype recording), transcription and other secretarial services. |
| 56142 | Telephone Call Centers | Includes (1) establishments primarily engaged in answering telephone calls and relaying messages to clients and (2) establishments primarily engaged in providing telemarketing services on a contract or fee basis for others, such as promoting clients' products or services by telephone; taking orders for clients by telephone; and soliciting contributions or providing information for clients by telephone. Telemarketing establishments never own the product or provide the service that they are representing and generally can originate and/or receive calls for others. |
| 56143 | Business Service Centers | Includes (1) establishments primarily engaged in providing mailbox rental and other postal and mailing services (except direct mail advertising); (2) establishments, generally known as copy centers or shops, primarily engaged in providing photocopying, duplicating, blueprinting and other document copying services without also providing printing services (i.e., offset printing, quick printing, digital printing or prepress services); and (3) establishments that provide a range of office support services (except printing services), such as mailing services, document copying services, facsimile services, word processing services, on-site PC rental services and office product sales. |
| 56144 | Collection Agencies | Collect payments for claims and remit payments collected to their clients. |
| 56145 | Credit Bureaus | Compile information, such as credit and employment histories on individuals and credit histories on businesses, and provide the information to financial institutions, retailers and others who have a need to evaluate the creditworthiness of these persons and businesses. |
| 56149 | Other Business Support Services | Provide business support services (except secretarial and other document preparation services; telephone answering or telemarketing services; private mail services or document copying services conducted as separate activities or in conjunction with other office support services; monetary debt collection services; and credit reporting services). Address bar coding services, mail presorting services, court reporting services and fundraising organization services are included in this industry. |
| Travel Arrangement and Reservation Services | ||
| 56151 | Travel Agencies | Act as agents in selling travel, tour and accommodation services to the general public and commercial clients. |
| 56152 | Tour Operators | Arrange and assemble tours. The tours are sold through travel agencies or tour operators. Travel or wholesale tour operators are included in this industry. |
| 56159 | Other Travel Arrangement and Reservation Services | Includes establishments (except travel agencies and tour operators) primarily engaged in providing travel arrangement and reservation services, such as condominium time-share exchange services, convention or visitors bureaus, ticket offices, and reservation services. |
| Investigation and Security Services | ||
| 56161 | Investigation, Guard, and Armored Car Services | Provide one or more of the following: (1) investigation and detective services; (2) guard and patrol services; and (3) picking up and delivering money, receipts or other valuable items with personnel and equipment to protect such properties while in transit. |
| 56162 | Security Systems Services | Includes establishments engaged in (1) selling security systems, such as burglar and fire alarms and locking devices, along with installation, repair or monitoring services or (2) remote monitoring of electronic security alarm systems. |
| Services to Buildings and Dwellings | ||
| 56171 | Exterminating and Pest Control Services | Exterminate and control birds, mosquitoes, rodents, termites, and other insects and pests (except for crop production and forestry production). Establishments providing fumigation services are included in this industry. |
| 56172 | Janitorial Services | Clean building interiors, interiors of transportation equipment (e.g., aircraft, rail cars, ships), and/or windows. |
| 56173 | Landscaping Services | Includes (1) establishments primarily engaged in providing landscape care and maintenance services and/or installing trees, shrubs, plants, lawns or gardens and (2) establishments primarily engaged in providing these services along with the design of landscape plans and/or the construction (i.e., installation) of walkways, retaining walls, decks, fences, ponds and similar structures. |
| 56174 | Carpet and Upholstery Cleaning Services | Clean and dye used rugs, carpets and upholstery. |
| 56179 | Other Services to Buildings and Dwellings | Provide services to buildings and dwellings (except exterminating and pest control; janitorial; landscaping care and maintenance; and carpet and upholstery cleaning). Swimming pool cleaning and maintenance, chimney cleaning services, and drain or gutter cleaning services are included in this industry. |
| Other Support Services | ||
| 56191 | Packaging and Labeling Services | Package client-owned materials, which may include labeling and/or imprinting the package. |
| 56192 | Convention and Trade Show Organizers | Organize, promote, and/or manage events, such as business and trade shows, conventions, conferences, and meetings (whether or not they manage and provide the staff to operate the facilities in which these events take place). |
| 56199 | All Other Support Services | Provide day-to-day business and other organizational support services (except office administrative services, facilities support services, employment services, business support services, travel arrangement and reservation services, security and investigation services, services to buildings and other structures, packaging and labeling services, and convention and trade show organizing services). Bartering services, traffic control services and inventory taking services are included in this industry. |
| Waste Collection | ||
| 56211 | Waste Collection | Includes (1) collecting and/or hauling hazardous waste, nonhazardous waste, and/or recyclable materials within a local area and/or (2) operating hazardous or nonhazardous waste transfer stations. Hazardous waste collection establishments may be responsible for the identification, treatment, packaging and labeling of waste for the purposes of transport. |
| Waste Treatment and Disposal | ||
| 56221 | Waste Treatment and Disposal | Includes (1) operating waste treatment or disposal facilities (except sewer systems or sewage treatment facilities) or (2) the combined activity of collecting and/or hauling of waste materials within a local area and operating waste treatment or disposal facilities. Waste combustors or incinerators (including those that may produce byproducts, such as electricity), solid waste landfills and compost dumps are included in this industry. |
| Remediation and Other Waste Management Services | ||
| 56291 | Remediation Services | Includes one or more of the following: (1) remediation and cleanup of contaminated buildings, mine sites, soil or ground water; (2) integrated mine reclamation activities, including demolition, soil remediation, waste water treatment, hazardous material removal, contouring land and revegetation; and (3) asbestos, lead paint and other toxic material abatement. |
| 56292 | Materials Recovery Facilities | Includes (1) operating facilities for separating and sorting recyclable materials from nonhazardous waste streams (i.e., garbage) and/or (2) operating facilities where commingled recyclable materials, such as paper, plastics, used beverage cans and metals, are sorted into distinct categories. |
| 56299 | All Other Waste Management Services | Includes waste management services (except waste collection, waste treatment and disposal, remediation, operation of materials recovery facilities, and waste management consulting services), such as sewer cleaning services and portable toilet renting. |
Source: North American Industry Classification System
2016 employment
Indiana’s administrative, support, waste management and remediation services sector consists of almost 9,300 establishments and employs nearly 187,000 workers. This equates to 6.2 percent of total employment in the state (compared to 6.4 percent in the U.S. as a whole). It is Indiana’s sixth largest sector (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Indiana’s employment by sector, 2016
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, using Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages data
Within the administrative and waste management sector, employment services (e.g., employment placement agencies and executive search services, temporary help services, and professional employer organizations) accounts for half of all employment within the sector at the state level (see Figure 2). For comparison, the employment services industry group comprises just 39 percent of the sector at the national level.
Figure 2: Indiana employment by industry group within the administrative and waste management sector, 2016
Note: When summed, employment totals in this chart differ from the sector total in Figure 1 due to disclosure issues.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, using Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages data
The next largest industry group is services to buildings and dwellings (e.g., pest control, janitorial services, landscaping services, and carpet cleaning). This accounts for 21 percent of the sector’s employment within Indiana and 23 percent of sector employment at the national level.
Change over time
In the past 15 years, employment in the sector has increased by nearly 52,000 (or 38 percent). And nearly half of this growth has happened since 2011 (see Table 2).
Table 2: Change in Indiana’s administrative and waste management sector employment
| Industry Group | 15-year change (2001-2016) | 5-year change (2011-2016) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Numeric | Percent | Numeric | Percent | |
| Sector Total | 51,952 | 38% | 24,085 | 15% |
| Employment services | 31,117 | 50% | 10,675 | 13% |
| Services to buildings and dwellings | 8,763 | 29% | 5,670 | 17% |
| Business support services | 3,005 | 27% | 2,454 | 21% |
| Office administrative services | 2,614 | 147% | 1,529 | 53% |
| Investigation and security services | 2,658 | 23% | 1,052 | 8% |
| Waste collection | 1,371 | 43% | 923 | 25% |
| Facilities support services | 1,787 | 234% | 512 | 25% |
| Other support services | 615 | 9% | 400 | 6% |
| Remediation and other waste services | 927 | 50% | 374 | 15% |
| Travel arrangement and reservation services | -735 | -20% | 307 | 12% |
| Waste treatment and disposal | -170 | -10% | 188 | 15% |
Note: This table is sorted by five-year numeric change.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, using Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages data
Growth in the employment services industry group has accounted for 60 percent of the sector’s job growth since 2001. When combined with services to buildings and dwellings, those two industry groups alone account for 77 percent of the numeric growth in the sector between 2001 and 2016 (and 68 percent of the growth since 2011).
However, facilities support services experienced the most dramatic growth in percentage terms among industry groups since 2001, with a 234 percent increase (see Figure 3). Only two industry groups within the sector have experienced declining employment over the 15-year time frame—travel arrangement and waste treatment and disposal—though there has been slight growth in both in recent years.
Figure 3: Indiana’s administrative and waste management industry group employment indexed to 2001
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, using Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages data
Summary
The administrative, support, waste management and remediation services sector covers a broad range of industries. State-level employment in the sector and its industry groups has been increasing over both a five-year and a 15-year time frame (with just a couple of exceptions). However, it is worth keeping in mind that much of the sector’s growth lies in employment services (e.g., temp jobs); therefore, a large increase in that industry group may not necessarily be a positive thing.
Notes
- “Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services: NAICS 56,” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, https://www.bls.gov/iag/tgs/iag56.htm.