Services

The United States and the other high-income OECD members are now "services economies". Most of the GDP—more than two-thirds—is now produced in services and most employment—as high as four-fifths—is in services. The United States, the United Kingdom and Canada were the first services economies and have been such for more than half a century. International trade in services has been growing more rapidly than trade in merchandise in the recent years. Trade in services is now around one-fifth of total trade. With the growth of national income, services absorb a larger proportion of income and provide more employment. This hypothesis clearly applies to many services that are "superior goods". In the process of economic development, agricultural output does not decrease, rather it increases, but productivity increases even faster. This usually results at first in a relative and eventually an absolute decline in the numbers of workers directly employed.