Definition

The industry-based definition of the ICT sector is based on Revision 3 of the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC Rev. 3).

The principles underlying this definition are the following. For manufacturing industries, an ICT product must fulfil the function of information processing and communication, including transmission and display; and they must use electronic processing to detect, measure and/or record physical phenomena or control a physical process. For services industries, ICT products must enable information processing and communication by electronic means. These two measures of ICT production are expressed as a share of the total value added in the manufacturing and business services.

Two measures of ICT employment are shown here: a narrow measure, comprising ICT specialists whose job is directly focused on ICT such as software engineers; and a broader measure including jobs that regularly use ICT but are not focused on ICT per se (these occupations include scientists and engineers, as well as office workers, but exclude teachers and medical specialists for whom the use of ICT is not essential for their tasks). These two measures of ICT employment are expressed as a share of total employment.

For more statistics on economic, environmental and social issues visit online the OECD Factbook 2010.