The most spectacular feature of the change we have witnessed in the last three decades is the fact that
the traditional industrial sector has fallen away drastically – both measured as a share of GNP and in
terms of employment – in all mature industrial economies. Instead, a sector which, for lack of a better
term, is normally called "the service sector" is expanding strongly. Despite this, however, it would be
premature in this context to speak of the death of the industrial society and the emergence of a new
post-industrial service economy. Many of these new "services" are in fact "industry-related services"
and have developed against the backdrop of the introduction of new technology and/or new ways of