Auditors have been deterred from adjusting rates for services too rapidly for fear that their clients may defect to competing firms. As a result, buyers have been able to budget accurately for purchases of audit services during the period.

APRs for business credit cards have risen an estimated 0.6 percentage points. As inflation has been rising and unemployment has approached its natural rate, the FOMC has started to increase the target range for the federal funds rate after nearly a decade of stagnancy.

A growing number of employees has added to the complexity of payroll, because businesses have had to do more back end work to integrate new workers into their operations. As a result, businesses have been compelled to outsource the administration of payroll to third-party processors, strengthening demand for payroll services.

The number of temporary employees has maintained considerable growth during the period. As the contingent workforce has expanded, businesses have faced more regulatory compliance and vendor management concerns, leading them to increasingly demand for contingent workforce management services

The cost of reimbursing healthcare providers for the services they render on behalf of plan participants is a primary expense for health insurance carriers, referred to as claims and benefits. The price of healthcare services has been rising, resulting in higher costs for insurers during this period. Insurers have passed these cost increases to buyers in the form of higher premiums.

In recent years, HR software programs have begun to offer a multitude of measurements and control tools to help businesses with recruitment, payroll, training and other core HR functions. Increased accessibility and functionality have helped generate more demand for HR software, which has allowed suppliers to raise prices.

Demand for personnel relocation generally follows overall trends in the broader economy; improvements in the economy boost business growth, encouraging businesses to expand to a greater number of locations. In turn, businesses must typically relocate some employees to facilitate this growth.

Landlords represent a large buying segment for suppliers of background checking services because they conduct checks on potential tenants. As demand for housing rentals has increased, the decline in rental vacancies has driven demand for background checking services.

Prices for computing hardware, one of the main components of desktop manufacturing, have been in a long-term state of decline as rapid technological advances have made semiconductors and electronic components cheaper from year to year.

New providers have been entering the market and capturing market share by offering low-priced or open source ERP software solutions, which buyers can use for free. At the same time, buyer preferences have shifted from the SaaP delivery model to SaaS deployments, which are typically less expensive. As a result of these changes, average market prices have fallen.

Consumers, which generate the most revenue and account for most bandwidth usage, have increasingly received less bandwidth with data caps on their internet plans. As a result, ISP costs per subscription have decreased, while prices per Mbps have increased.

Robust demand growth has primarily been attributed to the rapid adoption of cloud computing in business operations, which has increased productivity and helped companies maintain a competitive edge.

Because most laptops are priced according to the cost-plus model, drops in hardware components and software licensing costs have led to an overall decline in laptop prices.

Growth in internet traffic volume and total advertising expenditure have driven increases in demand. Internet traffic volume has had the biggest impact on demand and prices for this market’s services.

Total advertising expenditure has risen in response to rebounding consumer spending, which has compelled companies to invest more in their marketing efforts. As companies have spent more on advertising overall, they have increasingly required integrated advertising services to manage their advertising campaigns.