外文翻译--服务在经济中的作用

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1、附 录 1 The Role of Service in an Economy 1. Economic evolution In the early 1900s, only three of every ten workers in the United States were employed in the services sector. The remaining workers were active in agriculture and industry. By 1950, employment in services accounted for 50 percent of the

2、workforce. Today, services employ about eight out of every ten workers. During the past 90 years, we have witnessed a major evolution in our society from being predominantly manufacturing-based to being predominantly service-based. Economists studying economic growth are not surprised by these event

3、s. Colin Clark argues that as nations become industrialized, there is an inevitable shift of employment from one sector of the economy to another. As productivity increases in one sector, the labor force moves into another, This observation, known as the Clark-Fisher hypothesis, leads to a classific

4、ation of economies by noting the activity of the majority of the workforce. Stages of Economic Activity Primary (Extractive) Quaternary (Trade and Commerce Services) Agriculture Mining Fishing Forestry Transportation Retailing Communication Finance and insurance Real estate Government Secondary (goo

5、d-Producing) Manufacturing Processing Quinary (Refining and Extending Human Capacities) Tertiary(Domestic Services) Restaurants and hotels Barber and beauty shops Laundry and dry cleaning Maintenance and repair Health Education Research Recreation Arts The table above describes five stages of econom

6、ic activity. Many economists, including Clark, limited their analyses to only three stages, of which the tertiary stage was simply service stage into three categories. Today, an overwhelming number of countries are still in a primary stage of development. These economies are based on extracting natu

7、ral resources from the land. Their productivity is low, and income is subject to fluctuations based on the prices of commodities such as sugar and copper. In much of Africa and parts of Asia, more than 70 percent of the labor force is engaged in extractive activities. Based on the work activity of t

8、heir populations, however, many of the so-called advanced industrial nations would be better described as service economies. Several observations can be made: global economic development is progressing in unanticipated directions, successful industrial economies are built on a strong service sector,

9、 and just as it has in manufacturing, competition in services will become global. In fact, many of the largest commercial banks in the world at present are owned by the Japanese. Trade in services remains a challenge, however, because many countries erect barriers to protect domestic firms. For exam

10、ple, India and Mexico, among others, prohibit the sale of insurance by foreign companies. The service sector now accounts for more than three-fourths of total employment in the United States, which continues a trend that began more than one century ago. Therefore, based on employment figures, the Un

11、ited States can on longer be characterized as an industrial society； instead, it is a postindustrial, or service, society. 2. Nature of the service sector For many people, service is synonymous with servitude and brings to mind workers flipping hamburgers and waiting on tables. However, the service

12、sector that has grown significantly over the past 30 years cannot be accurately described as composed only of low-wage or low-skill jobs in department stores and fast-food restaurants. Instead, the fastest-growing jobs within the service sector are in finance, insurance, real estate, miscellaneous s

13、ervices (e.g., health, education, professional services), and retail trade. Note that job areas whose growth rates were less than the rate of increase in total jobs (i.e., less than 31.8 percent) lost market share, even though they showed gains in their absolute numbers. The exceptions are in mining

14、 and manufacturing, which lost in absolute numbers and thus showed negative growth rates. This trend should accelerate with the end of the cold war and the subsequent downsizing of the military and defense industry. Changes in the pattern of employment will have implications on where and how people

15、live, on educational requirements, and, consequently, on the kinds of organizations that will be important to that society. Industrialization created the need for the semiskilled worker who could be trained in a few weeks to perform the routine machine-tending tasks. The subsequent growth in the ser

16、vice sector has caused a shift to white-collar occupations. In the United States, the year 1956 was a turning point. For the first time in the history of industrial society, the number of white-collar workers exceeded the number of blue-collar workers, and the gap has been widening since then. The m

17、ost interesting growth has been in the managerial and professional-technical fields, which are jobs that require a college education. Today, service industries are the source of economic leadership. During the past 30 years, more than 44 million new jobs have been created in the service sector to ab

18、sorb the influx of women into the workforce and to provide an alternative to the lack of job opportunities in manufacturing. The service industries now account for approximately 70 percent of the national income in the United States. Given that there is a limit to how many cars a consumer can use an

19、d how much one can eat and drink, this should not be surprising. The appetite for services, however, especially innovative ones, is insatiable. Among the services presently in demand are those that reflect an aging population, such as geriatric health care, and others that reflect a two-income famil

20、y, such as day care. The growth of the service sector has produced a less cyclic national economy. During the past four recessions in the United States, employment by service industries has actually increased, while jobs in manufacturing have been lost. This suggests that consumers are willing to po

21、stpone the purchase of products but will not sacrifice essential services like education, telephone, banking, health care, and public services such as fire and police protection. Service reasons can explain the recession-resistant nature of services. First, by their nature, services cannot be invent

22、oried, as is the case for products. Because consumption and production occur simultaneously for services, the demand for them is more stable than for manufactured goods. When the economy falters, many services continue to survive. Hospitals keep busy as usual, and, while commissions may drop in real

23、 estate, insurance, and security businesses, employees need not be laid off. Second, during a recession, both consumers and business firms defer capital expenditures and instead fix up and make do with existing equipment. Thus, service jobs in maintenance and repair are crested. We have discovered that the modern industrial economies are dominated by employment in the service sector. Just as farming jobs migrated to manufacturing in the nineteenth century under the driving force of labor-saving technology, manufacturing jobs in due time migrated to services. Well conclude our discussion of