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NCB released its latest report on the services sector, and the report contained two really interesting graphs, which I'm reproducing below.

We see two trends in the series. First, while overall business activity as measured by the top chart is down, the level of activity is around the same level as in 2003, right about the end of the Celtic Tiger period as the economy recovered from the Foot and Mouth Crisis.

Second, the lower graph shows how correlated service sector business activity is with employment---as things go bad, those in service sector jobs tend to be let go more quickly, perhaps due to the nature of the work, and perhaps due to the lack of unionisation among service sector workers. Either way, service sector employment levels are again at 2003 (ish) levels.