Second, we tend to assume "service jobs" are somehow "less than". But you give an excellent example of the business economist making $150,000 which I think would be considered service, and I guess my point/question is that aren't we missing something when we talk about moving to a service economy--in the sense that are not some of the most skilled jobs in our economy classified as service (this is a question). Are not doctors, investment bankers, lawyers, etc.--some of the jobs we all want our children to have--considered service? And not to degrade the sales person at Walmart, or an art store, or a gallery--sorry for the break from finance and economics here--but wouldn't Buddha say "right work", and might not some people love those jobs. (I did for years).
third, countries like Singapore have had a definitive country strategy of first getting manufacturing jobs, and then moving those jobs to Malaysia and Thailand while upscaling their jobs to prototype manufacturing, R&D, and higher level manufacturing. They see that as a victory--and we are crying about using "pillow manufacturing jobs" (from other comments).?? Geesh.
Are not doctors, investment bankers, lawyers, etc.--some of the jobs we all want our children to have--considered service?
I would argue that nearly all jobs we would want our children to have are service-sector jobs. The ones you list are probably the best known.
I didn't intend to speak poorly of Wal-Mart employees, though I've had a few bad experiences with some of the more-obnoxious ones in the South. Or pillow makers, for that matter. Some people love those jobs, as you point out. I worked at Eckerd Drugs (now CVS Pharmacy) for over two years, and I loved nearly every minute of it. (It's the perfect job for lazy college students with nothing to do.)
Gaining those jobs in Asia has certainly been a victory for those people. I've always said that low-paying jobs which barely pay the rent are better than no jobs and no food.
At the micro level of the business, I think it can, and is, being measured by business--things like deliveries per day, items stocked per day, items checked out per day, etc., etc., etc.
But these are more measures of how well the business is performing in general -- demand, in particular. More demand means the business needs more supply, so more deliveries, items stocked, and so on. You could take your second piece, "items stocked per day," and use this to measure productivity -- if you have more goods on the shelf and have not increased your workforce, productivity has increased. But we can get into some discussion of this scenario and see why even this is not as nice and clean as the "Bob made the equivalent of five more Ford F-150s this year" manufacturing scenario. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
