US Selected-Services Revenue Grew 3.1 Percent in the Second Quarter
Revenue for selected United States service industries reached 6,421.9 billion dollars in the second quarter, up 3.1 percent on the first quarter and 7.7 percent on the same quarter of 2025. Both figures are seasonally adjusted, and the Census Bureau publishes them with margins of error of 0.4 and 0.6 percentage points respectively.
The first quarter was left unrevised at 1.1 percent growth.
| Selected services revenue | Value |
|---|---|
| Second quarter 2026 | 6,421.9 billion dollars |
| Change on first quarter | +3.1% |
| Change on second quarter 2025 | +7.7% |
| First quarter 2026 change, unrevised | +1.1% |
The pace is the point
A quarterly gain of 3.1 percent, sustained for four quarters, would compound to roughly 13.0 percent a year — our calculation from the published quarterly rate. That is well above the 7.7 percent the series actually recorded over the past twelve months, which means the second quarter ran materially faster than the year that preceded it.
The comparison with the first quarter makes the same point more simply. Growth of 3.1 percent against 1.1 percent is 2.8 times the first quarter’s pace — our calculation from the two published rates.
This series measures revenue in current dollars. It is not adjusted for price changes, so part of any increase reflects what service providers charged rather than what they produced. The Census Bureau does not publish a deflated version of this estimate, and we are not constructing one.
Why it matters for the wider picture
Services make up the larger part of the American economy, and this release gives an early quarterly revenue reading across a broad set of service industries. It is an advance estimate, so it will be revised.
A note on the sector detail
The release carries a sector breakdown, and it is not on the same basis as the headline. The Census Bureau states that the selected services total is the only seasonally adjusted estimate updated in the advance report, and that seasonally adjusted estimates for all other industry levels have not been revised with this release. The industry lines are therefore unadjusted by design, which is why figures such as utilities and transportation and warehousing swing much harder than the total does. We are printing the two headline figures only, and any sector reading has to be taken on an unadjusted basis.
SOURCES
- US Census Bureau, Quarterly Selected Services Estimates, second quarter 2026, advance estimate, 20 August 2026
