The development of the information and communications sector in Germany

On the basis of the usually applied narrow definition of the Information and Communication (IC) sector, which encompasses only those industrial sectors whose outputs include modern IC technology and services as well as content, it could be said that, during the last 20 years, Germany has experienced neither above-average growth in IC production nor above-average growth in IC employment compared to the economy as a whole. In 1998, these sectors’ share of employment stood at a mere 4.1% of total employment, and was thus lower than it had been in 1980. In the case of Germany, the transition from an industrial society to an information society can be demonstrated more clearly if the development of those industrial sectors is also taken into account, in which the use of modern IC technologies and services plays a significant role. Thus, for example, if one were to apply the concept of a primary information sector (as used by the OECD in the 1970s and 1980s in two comparative cross-country studies), which includes information production, processing and transmission independently of the underlying IC technologies, these part of the economy is shown to have increased his contribution towards GDP from of 15% in 1970 to 25% in 1998.