SECTORAL TRENDS IN WORLD EMPLOYMENT AND THE SHIFT TOWARD SERVICES

This article seeks to identify and interpret the major sectoral trends in world employment. Drawing on UNIDO and ILO data, the author focuses and trends in manufacturing employment - which diverge between industrialized countries and developing countries. But in general, global long-term growth is in services. The author discusses difficulties in defining services and their productivity, and presents alternative explanations of the measured growth in services. An example: technological progress may lower transactions costs and lead to services formerly provided within manufacturing firms being contracted out - increasing ''services'' while leaving the activity itself unchanged.