Wish little service productivity growth, the principal way of expanding output has been to add more bodies. Politicians love to take credit{{U}} (31) {{/U}}an 18. 2 million increase in jobs in this decade,{{U}} (32) {{/U}}in the service businesses firms essentially have been digging the Grand Canyon with millions of people equipped only with picks and shovels-more production but achieved by the brute-force technique of adding bodies, rather{{U}} (33) {{/U}}by improving efficiency.
The opportunities{{U}} (34) {{/U}}improve service productivity through office automation, better management, etc. are tremendous, even{{U}} (35) {{/U}}an increase in the skills of the rank and file. The pressure to get that improvement will come from the customers, themselves facing excruciating global competition. A manufacturer can be, doing a bang-up job of raising his own productivity.
Furthermore,{{U}} (36) {{/U}}the globalization of almost everything, service industries from finance{{/U}} (37) {{/U}}airlines are now experiencing direct international competition. And the deregulation of banking, trucking, telecommunications and other service industries has freshened the bracing winds of competition, forcing companies{{U}} (38) {{/U}}AT￡T and U. S. West to slash their workforces to dramatically improve productivity.
A speed-up in productivity growth means that fewer additional service workers will be hired{{U}} (39) {{/U}}non-manufacturing productivity had grown on trend in the last decade, jobs would have been creeled, and the current unemployment rate would be 13%, and if overall productivity growth in the next ten years averages 2%, the unemployment rate will still average about 10%.
So forget about labor shortages in the 1990s. Any slowdown in the labor supply will be more than compensated{{U}} (40) {{/U}}by increased use of machinery and computers, and by people working better and smarter.