Abstract
Focusing on wage differences, employment opportunities in the services industries and manufacturing are compared. Industries included in the services sector are: 1. such services as health and business, 2. trade, 3. finance, insurance, and real estate, 4. transportation, communication, and public utilities, and 5. government. There has been a steady rise in the share of employment in service-producing industries. They have more low-wage workers and more very-high-wage workers with fewer middle-wage earners than manufacturing. Countries with higher incomes tend to have larger shares of employment in services. It is concluded that services expansion supports and is supported by growth in other sectors. Services can create demands through the development of new and better products, which often depend on the growth of related manufacturing. It is hard to distinguish the contributions of industries to economic progress. Economic success is measured by a rising standard of living rather than by shares of employment in services.