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| Service-oriented: Sam Alalam is a hairdresser at Leeba Salon in Boston. Nicole Hill |
Service work props up US job market
So far this year, the nation has added 815,000 service jobs.
By Ron Scherer | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitorand Simone Baribeau | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor
from the July 9, 2007 edition
Page 1 of 3
New York - The US economy is now being powered by educators, healthcare workers, front-desk clerks at hotels, and anyone who can ask, "May I help you?"
Demand for workers in the service sector is hard to sate. Online job postings are full of ads looking for hair stylists, legal case assistants, and billing coordinators. Search firms say 80 percent or more of their work is in the service sector. In fact, the economy has now reached the point that the service sector is creating 100 percent of US job growth.
Last month was yet another example of such economic muscle: The Labor Department reported last Friday a net gain of 132,000 jobs – after a gain of 135,000 jobs in services. The unemployment rate remained at 4.5 percent. So far this year, without the benefit of the 815,000 service jobs added, the economy would have had a net loss of 106,000 jobs.
"The service side is doing all the work.... It's ever more dominant," says Ethan Harris, chief economist at Lehman Brothers in New York. "There has been a steady bleed in manufacturing jobs."
No matter where the jobs are coming from, some economists believe their relatively decent number indicates the economy is showing some resiliency after a laggard performance in the beginning of the year, when the gross domestic product grew at only a 0.7 percent rate. A snapshot of the economy would find a current growth rate of between 3.5 percent and 4 percent, some economists believe.
"We are fairly optimistic the economy is finding its feet," says Ryan Reed, an economist at National City Corp. in Cleveland.
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