The American economy has added 20 million jobs over the past decade, an expansion of almost 25 per cent. This is an enormous rate of growth of employment, an expansion accompanied by entry of the post-Second World War ‘baby boom’ population into the labour force, and by rising labour force participation rates by women (Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) 1988). Most of this growth of employment has come in the services, and this has not been without controversy. Concern has been expressed about the part-time and low wage nature of much services employment, and doubt has been expressed about the ability of the economy to have real economic growth without continued expansion of goods producing sectors (Rose 1986; Zysman and Cohen 1987).