The service sector has provided a cushion to millions of Americans who have lost manufacturing jobs since the 1970s. The service sector includes firms whose final outputs are intangible. The value of a service depends primarily on the skills or knowledge used in its creation, not in any physical good provided to consumers. In most cases, workers facilitate the process by dealing directly with customers in selling or providing services.

When Americans think of the service sector, they often think of young, low-paid, parttime, unskilled workers. Visions of McDonald’s employees flipping hamburgers or GAP salespeople hawking the latest fashion trends dominate contemporary thought. In reality, lawyers, doctors, entertainers and athletes are all employees of the service sector. The residual nature of the sector’s definition groups individuals who have little in common.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics classifies wholesale and retail trade, finance, entertainment and recreation, professional services, public administration and many other categories as service industries.

Regardless, the stereotypical unskilled worker is the most vulnerable in the service economy The growth of “McJobs” has struck fear in the minds of young Americans embarking on uncertain careers. Businesses have commoditized work, treating employees as interchangeable and accepting the accompanying high turnover and low commitment.

Part-time employment is widespread in the United States. While convenient for young workers and working parents, the growth limitations and lack of benefits inherent in unskilled service professions (sometimes called “dead-end jobs”) are worrisome.

The ephemeral nature of service goods creates a fear that the US economy relies on non-productive activities for economic growth. Nonetheless, the prosperity of the post-Second World War period created consumer markets for a vast array of services.

Specialization led Americans to rely on others for dry cleaning, food preparation and professional advice.

Service industries now represent over three-quarters of the American labor force.

Manufacturing employment has fallen 10 percent to 19.7 million between 1979 and 1996, while employment in the services has risen 44 percent to 83.8 million. The Walmart department store chain is the fourthlargest US corporation, employing 720,000 primarily in low-skilled retail sales positions. Many such jobs are located in remote suburban settings, creating difficulties for struggling inner cities and their inhabitants.

As Jeremy Rifkin argues in The End of Work (1998), however, the rash of downsizings and consolidation in the service industry has yet to reach its peak. While services will always require human assistance (if only to program computers), innovation in voicerecognition technology threatens phone operators, Internet commerce threatens salespeople and just-in-time inventory threatens warehousing jobs. As jobs are eliminated through automation, the social safety net of extended families, government welfare and low employment may not be as guaranteed as it appeared in the past.