According to the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) employment in the sector in 2013 will be 8% lower than its peak in 2008.
The CEBR research shows this sector, including IT services, real estate, advertising, legal services and management consultancy, contributed approximately two thirds of all the jobs created since New Labour came to power in 2007.
And business services jobs increased by 616,000 between 2003 and 2008 - marking a 20% rise in employment in the sector.
But the recession has taken its toll and in 2009 output is expected to fall by 5% and an expected "sluggish" recovery will lead to job losses.
Ben Read, a managing economist at CEBR, said: "The business services sector, one of UK plc's leading lights in recent years, will find the operating environment for the next five years to be very different compared with the previous five years.
"Steep drops in business investment, the collapse of the property market and construction industry, upcoming cuts in public sector spending as well as continued difficulty for firms to find capital imply difficult times ahead for this sector."
334,000 jobs could go in business services sector
As many as 334,000 jobs could be lost in the business services sector over the next four years.
