"This paper focuses on how successfully non-metropolitan areas [in the United States] can compete for service-producing industry. Data on wage and salary employment for the 1969-84 period are used to assess how well non-metropolitan areas have been keeping up with metropolitan areas in expanding service jobs. Changes in patterns of employment growth in non-metropolitan and metropolitan service industries between 1969-76 and 1976-84 are described and these changes related to the growth pattern in goods-producing industries. In addition, data are used to identify the types of service activities that have concentrated in non-metropolitan areas."