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Show Davis County Includes Qr-s Sendee l7or!.cps In Davis County, a larger proportion of the work force than ever before is engaged in providing services rather than products. FOR A NUMBER of years, service businesses have been playing an ever-expanding role in the local economy. As in many other parts of the country, they have been responsible re-sponsible for most of the new job opportunities that have opened up. The Labor Department's statistics tell the story. They show that nearly 7 out of every 10 American workers are now employed in service industries, as compared with 4 out of 10 at the end of world war II. IN THE services category are people engaged in retail trade, communications, insurance, in-surance, business and repair services, entertainment, banking, education, health care, government and the like. The production workers are those employed in manufacturing, manufac-turing, construction, mining, agriculture, forestry and fisheries. THE FIGURES for Davis County show that approximately approxi-mately 86 percent of the working force are now in service-related occupations and 14 percent in production jobs. It represents a marked transition tran-sition from earlier years. In 1970, by way of comparison, com-parison, 82 percent in the local area were found to be in services and 18 percent in production work. AS FOR THE nation as a whole, the latest figures show 68 percent in services and, in the State of Utah, 77 percent. The dramatic growth in the service industries is attribut- ed to the rising output per -worker in the production industries, in-dustries, due primarily to automation. au-tomation. With machines substituting for men, it meant that fewer people were needed need-ed to turn out the required volume of goods. HOWEVER, instead of the massive unemployment that had been feared with the advent ad-vent of automation, it did not happen except in times of depression. The economy boomed and Uie population as a whole became more affluent. With the growing prosperity the demand for services increased and new industries came into being, providing more jobs than had existed previously. |