Services, most often an indispensable factor in the production of various products, but also independent processes that are directly performed in order to meet the needs of the end consumer, are an extremely important part of any economy. The purpose of this thesis is to define services, explain their importance for the economy, provide insight into the regulation and certain specifics of the global services market, and ultimately link the level of development and economic growth with the level of development and growth of the service sector. The aim of this thesis is to determine whether there is a connection between economic development and growth on one side, and development and growth of the service sector of the economy on the other side. The methodology is mainly based on foreign data sources that include various professional articles, books, publications and websites, as well as on quantitative analysis of economic development and growth indicators, and indicators related to the service sector. The conclusion of the thesis is that the level of economic development is exclusively related to the share of employees in the service sector, while the relationship with other observed indicators cannot be established with certainty. On the other hand, in the long term, the economic growth is exclusively related to the growth of realized services export and import per capita, while in the short term only the existence of positive correlation with the growth of the share of employees in the service sector has been confirmed.