The subject of research is the theoretical, methodological, and practical aspects of services sector development in the national economy. The purpose of the article is to identify the features and contradictions of services sector development in the economy of Ukraine. The methodological basis of the study is general scientific and special methods of scientific knowledge, conceptual terms of modern economics, and scientific works of domestic and foreign scientists on the functioning and development of the services sector. The methods of induction and deduction, unity of historical and logical, comparative analysis are used in the work - at revealing the basic tendencies and contradictions of services sector development, substantiation of the essence of service, its specific signs, and classification characteristics. Results of work. The tendencies of services sector development in the economy of Ukraine are determined. The intensive development of the Ukrainian services sector started only with the beginning of the market relations formation. In the economy of Ukraine, there is a strong tendency to exceed the total contribution of the services sector to national GDP against the contribution of industrial production and agriculture. Besides, the dynamics of the employment structure of Ukraine by economic activity types shows that the share of the economically active population working in the services sector is much higher than in primary and secondary sectors with a steady upward trend. The volume of capital investment in the services sector exceeds these indicators for both spheres of material production. There is a constant growth of intermediate consumption of services as necessary production resources. The main areas for attracting investment resources are capital-intensive industries, at the same time the level of investment activity in the areas of knowledge-intensive services is threateningly low. The expenditures on services consumption in the general structure of household expenditures are insignificant. The Ukrainian economic system is export-oriented in the sphere of services and has a positive foreign trade balance in services. Field of application of results. The conclusions and results obtained in the article should be used in the educational and scientific process of economic faculties of universities, in the activities of service enterprises as well. Conclusions. The industrial specialization of the national service sector, its focus on low- and medium-tech capital-intensive industries, low share of household expenditures in the service sector, the tendency to neglect the intellectual development of the individual, and insufficient attention to innovative economic development make it possible to determine the current state of and trends of services sector development as a quasi-post-industrial, where the absolute numerical indicators have already been achieved, and qualitative indicators of development are remaining at the industrial level.