Title: The Tenth District's Expanding Service Sector
Abstract: The proliferation of jobs in the nation has received much attention. While the manufacturing has suffered substantial job losses during the current business cycle, job growth in has been brisk. Because the comprises a diverse collection of industries, there is considerable confusion about what kinds of jobs the industries are creating and what factors will affect the outlook for the sector. In the Tenth District, industry jobs have grown even faster than in the nation. As the becomes a bigger share of the work force, its performance will increasingly influence the outlook for the region's economy. The already employs more workers than any economic in the district, yet little is known about the individual industries that make up this sector. This article explores the dimensions of the district's and considers the outlook for its key industries. The first section defines the and establishes its importance in the region's economy. The second section reviews industries in the district and compares the industry profiles of the individual district states. The final section considers how the outlook for the district's key industries, health care and business services, will be shaped by an aging population, health care reform, and technological change. HOW IMPORTANT ARE SERVICES TO THE DISTRICT To understand the importance of to the district economy it is helpful to answer three key questions: What industries make up the sector, how big is the relative to parts of the region's economy, and how fast has the been growing?(1) What is the sector? There is a great deal of confusion about what the is, resulting partly from the intangible nature of Unlike goods such as food and autos, are intangible and usually consumed at the time they are produced. Mostly, however, the confusion stems from the fact that sectors of the economy also provide Commercial banks, for instance, provide many financial But as an integral part of the finance sector, the Commerce Department includes these in the finance, insurance, and real estate category of the economy. Other sectors of the economy providing but listed as separate categories include the following: transportation, communications, and public utilities; wholesale and retail trade; and government. The major sectors of the economy are shown in Chart 1 with the shaded area indicating the service-producing sectors. (Chart 1 omitted) Throughout this article, the service sector will refer to consumer and producer industries not classified in any of the service-producing sectors. Bigger than any service-producing sector, this group of industries is sometimes referred to as narrow services or other services. Table 1 lists all the industries that constitute such consumer and producer services.(2) (Table 1 omitted) Consumer include a broad range of major industries: hotels and lodging places; personal services; auto repair and parking; motion pictures; amusement and recreation; health care; education; social services; and membership organizations. Producer include business, legal, and engineering and management A common fear across the nation is that high-paying manufacturing jobs are being supplanted by low-paying jobs. However, many industries in the pay high wages (Table 2). (Table 2 omitted) While hourly earnings in some industries such as personal services, social services, and hotels and lodging places are well below the average for all nonagricultural jobs, earnings in such industries as legal services, engineering and management services, and membership organizations are far above average. …
Publication Year: 1994
Publication Date: 1994-07-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 1
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