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EMBARGOED UNTIL RELEASE AT 8:30 A.M. EDT, Monday, July 6, 2020

BEA 20-34

Gross Domestic Product by Industry, 1st Quarter 2020

Accommodation and food services; finance and insurance; and health care and social assistance industries were the leading contributors to the 5.0 percent (annual rate) decrease in gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter of 2020, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. All sectors of the U.S. economy contributed to the decrease, led by a decline in private services-producing industries.

Chart showing Real GDP and Real Value Added by Sector.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Impact on the First-Quarter 2020 GDP Estimate

The decline in first-quarter GDP reflected the response to the spread of COVID-19, as governments issued "stay-at-home" orders in March. This led to rapid changes in production, as businesses and schools switched to remote work or canceled operations, and consumers and businesses canceled, restricted, or redirected their spending. The full economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be quantified in the GDP estimate for the first quarter of 2020 because the impacts are generally embedded in source data and cannot be separately identified. For more information, see "Federal Recovery Programs and BEA Statistics: COVID-19 and Recovery" on the BEA website.

Real value added by industry

Overall, 17 of 22 industry groups contributed to the first-quarter decline in real GDP. Of the five industry groups that offset the decline in the first-quarter real GDP, agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting was the largest contributor, increasing 15.5 percent.

For accommodation and food services, real value added—a measure of an industry's contribution to GDP—decreased 26.8 percent in the first quarter, primarily reflecting a decrease in food services and drinking places.
Finance and insurance decreased 9.0 percent in the first quarter. The largest contributor to the decrease was insurance carriers and related activities.
Health care and social assistance decreased 7.8 percent in the first quarter, primarily reflecting decreases in ambulatory health care services and in hospitals.
Arts, entertainment, and recreation decreased 34.7 percent in the first quarter, primarily reflecting a decrease in performing arts, spectator sports, museums, and related activities.

Chart showing Real Value Added by Selected Industries.

Gross output by industry

Real gross output—principally a measure of an industry's sales or receipts, which includes sales to final users in the economy (GDP) and sales to other industries (intermediate inputs)—decreased 4.0 percent in the first quarter. This reflected a decrease of 5.7 percent for the private services-producing sector, a decrease of 0.8 percent for the private goods-producing sector, and a decrease of 0.4 percent for the government sector. Overall, 16 of 22 industry groups contributed to the decrease in real gross output.

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Next release – September 30, 2020 at 8:30 A.M. EDT for:
Gross Domestic Product by Industry: Second Quarter 2020
Annual Update of the Industry Economic Accounts

Bringing Together National, Industry, and State GDP Statistics

BEA is speeding up the release of its industry and state GDP statistics to coordinate more closely with the quarterly estimates of national GDP. Starting on September 30, industry GDP statistics will be issued on the same day – and in the same news release – as the third estimate of national GDP. State-by-state GDP statistics will follow in a separate news release within two days. These three major dimensions of GDP will be synchronized to cover the same quarter, giving users a fuller and more timely view of the U.S. economy.

Full Release & Tables (PDF)

Charts & Tables (Excel)

Highlights (PDF)

Technical

Thomas Howells

(301) 278-9586

IndustryEconomicAccounts@bea.gov

Technical

Edward Morgan

(301) 278-9541

Media (BEA)

Connie O'Connell

301-278-9003

Connie.OConnell@bea.gov

Resources

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Information on COVID-19 and recovery impacts is available on our web site.
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Historical time series for these estimates can be accessed in BEA's interactive data application.
Access BEA data by registering for BEA's Data application programming interface (API).
For more on BEA's statistics, see our monthly online journal, the Survey of Current Business.
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Industry Concepts and Methods: Concepts and Methods of the U.S. Input-Output Accounts

Definitions

Gross domestic product (GDP) or value added is the value of the goods and services produced by the nation's economy less the value of the goods and services used up in production. GDP is also equal to the sum of personal consumption expenditures, gross private domestic investment, net exports of goods and services, and government consumption expenditures and gross investment.

Gross output (GO) is the value of the goods and services produced by the nation's economy. It is principally measured using industry sales or receipts, including sales to final users (GDP) and sales to other industries (intermediate inputs).

Current-dollar estimates are valued in the prices of the period when the transactions occurred—that is, at "market value." Also referred to as "nominal estimates" or as "current-price estimates."

Real values are inflation-adjusted estimates—that is, estimates that exclude the effects of price changes.

Statistical conventions

Annual rates. Quarterly values are expressed at seasonally-adjusted annual rates (SAAR), unless otherwise specified. Dollar changes are calculated as the difference between these SAAR values. For detail, see the FAQ "Why does BEA publish estimates at annual rates?"

Quantities and prices. Quantities, or "real" measures, and prices are expressed as index numbers with a specified reference year equal to 100 (currently 2012). Quantity and price indexes are calculated using a Fisher-chained weighted formula that incorporates weights from two adjacent periods (quarters for quarterly data and annuals for annual data). "Real" dollar series are calculated by multiplying the published quantity index by the current-dollar value in the reference year (2012) and then dividing by 100. Percent changes calculated from chained-dollar levels and quantity indexes are conceptually the same; any differences are due to rounding.

Chained-dollar values are not additive because the relative weights for a given period differ from those of the reference year. In tables that display chained-dollar values, the value of the "Not allocated by industry" line reflects the difference between the first line and the sum of the most detailed lines. For the real value added by industry table, this value also reflects differences in source data used to estimate GDP by industry and the expenditures measure of real GDP.

List of News Release Tables

Table 1. Real Value Added by Industry Group: Percent Change from Preceding Period
Table 2. Contributions to Percent Change in Real GDP by Industry Group
Table 3. Chain-Type Price Indexes for Value Added by Industry Group: Percent Change from Preceding Period
Table 4. Contributions to Percent Change in the GDP Price Index by Industry Group
Table 5. Value Added by Industry Group
Table 5a. Value Added by Industry Group as a Percentage of GDP
Table 6. Real Gross Output by Industry Group: Percent Change from Preceding Period
Table 7. Chain-Type Price Indexes for Gross Output by Industry Group: Percent Change from Preceding Period
Table 8. Gross Output by Industry Group