Abstract
Service industries have been relatively neglected in studies of regional development in Britain despite the fact that they now employ almost two-thirds of the work-force. The paper considers the reasons for the well-established shift towards service employment: higher income-elasticity of demand for consumer services compared with goods; the growth of intermediate demand for services; and relatively slow labour productivity growth in services. The pattern of service employment growth by industry groups and in the regions of Britain since 1971 is examined. Regional trends in private service employment are seen to have moved against northern and western regions in the late 1970s and early 1980s. However, the conventional treatment of services as a purely dependent sector is questioned. In particular, the role of producer services in regional growth is explored, with the suggestion that inequalities in producer service endowments are an important causal factor in regional disparities. The paper concludes with some suggestions on directions for further research.
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