Final answer:
Economic reports identify 'service producing' activities as those that generate intangible value and non-physical goods, which significantly contribute to the modern economy's GDP and have grown in importance over manufacturing in many developed countries.
Step-by-step explanation:
Historically, economic reports identify activities as "service producing" that are non-physical and intangible in nature, as opposed to the manufacturing of physical goods. When considering Gross Domestic Product (GDP), services encompass a broad range of industries such as healthcare, education, and legal and financial services.
In modern economies like the United States, service industries contribute more to the GDP than manufacturing, and the jobs often involve activities like researching, consulting, or providing customer support rather than creating solid objects.
For many years now, the majority of the U.S. economy and many other developed countries have been service-oriented. The tertiary and quaternary sectors, better known collectively as the service sector, have grown over time, now forming a substantial part of an economy's GDP.
These sectors include jobs that do not necessarily create physical products but offer value through various forms of services.
Services are now the largest single component of total supply in the economy, representing a significant percentage of GDP and increasing from around 45 percent in the early 1950s to much higher percentages in recent years.
This trend reflects a shift from an economy primarily based on manufacturing to one dominated by service-producing activities.