tribute in a positive accounting fashion to GDP; services account for about 30 percent of exports and about 15 percent of imports. When one adds up these spending categories on services and divides by real private GDP (real GDP less government spending2), one finds that around 50 percent of real private GDP comes from services that can be relatively straightfor- wardly identified in the national accounts.
On the production side, services (including transportation; wholesale and retail trade; finance, insurance, and real estate; and other services) add up to 84 percent of private industry product, much larger than on the spending side. The difference between the spending percentage and the production percentage suggests that measurements on spending bundle together spending on services and goods (which are easier to track and measure), which tends to underestimate the share of spending on services.
In terms of private employment, a sectoral breakdown shows 80 per- cent of labor is employed in the services sector and 13 percent in the man- ufacturing sector (the remainder is in mining, farming, etc.). However, many people employed in the manufacturing sector are not production employees but have service-type jobs. Analyzing the US private labor force from the standpoint of occupations, only 8 percent are in “produc- tion” occupations, leaving 92 percent in services occupations.
Taking all these measures together, services account for a majority of spending, are larger in terms of output measures, and account for al- most all the employed. No wonder globalization of services has generated concern.