Legal and accounting services leap 12.5% in Q1

Turnover of legal and accounting services leapt by 12.5% compared with the same period of the previous year in the first three months of 2011, while other data on turnover in services suggest that there are signs of life in the sector.
Legal and accounting services fall under the broad category of “professional, scientific and technical activities”, which rose by 7.4%, and have been growing steadily in the past few years.
The fastest growing sector in the overall professional category was “activities of head offices; management consultancy activities” which rose by 15.9%.
Advertising and market research rose by 6.1%, while the only category to decline was “ Architectural and engineering activities; technical testing & analysis, which not surprisingly has been hit by the downturn in construction.
Outside this sector, turnover if the information and communication sector rose by 3.1% and turnover in administrative and support service activities rose by 0.9%.
Signs of life in consumer spending and/or tourism came with a 7.4% increase in accommodation and food service activities.
Turnover in the transport services sector was mainly down, however.
While land transport increased by 3.7% water transport dropped by 6.4%, air transport by 24.6% and postal and courier activities decreased by 10.8%.
Fiona Mullen
www.sapientaeconomics.com