Between 1950 and 1990, total U.S. employment grew from 48.5 million workers to 118 million workers. The two industries adding the most jobs were business services, including the advertising and computer and data processing industries, and health services. Twenty-seven percent of the net employment gain during the 1980s was in those two categories. Computer and data processing industries added nearly half a million jobs during the 1980s. The growth in service-sector employment has absorbed labor resources freed by rising manufacturing productivity.
Most experts now dismiss the idea of a rapidly eroding U.S. industrial base.
Of course, many of the new service jobs did not pay as highly as did manufacturing jobs, nor did they carry the same benefits. This put a squeeze on many family incomes and forced large numbers of women into the work force during the 1980s. This trend is likely to continue. Text prepared for The American Revolution - an .HTML project. All rights reserved.