Overview of The Services and Goods Sector

Services: what are they, anyway?

We've talked about the role of services in the economy, but haven't said much about what's included in the service sector. So what are services?

The service sector covers a wide range of industries that provide services to individuals, businesses and governments. You've almost certainly used many of the services they offer, although you may not be in the habit of thinking of the establishments where you purchase them as being part of a specific industry.

People who have jobs in the service sector may be selling real estate, providing financial services, or working in a store or restaurant. Some work in industries with close ties to goods production, providing services such as transportation, wholesaling, retailing and insurance to manufacturers who must move their products from the factory gate to markets where they can be bought and sold.

Although these industries owe some of their business to the goods sector, they're not completely dependent on it. For example, the railway system is primarily used to move cargo, but it also transports people who are traveling for pleasure. Truck companies carry freight, but may also move household goods. And airlines ship a lot of cargo, but derive the bulk of their revenues from passenger traffic.

Real estate, financial, legal, accounting, and other services are used by both businesses and individuals. Garages fix cars for individuals, but also provide maintenance services to taxi companies, ambulance and police services. And the list goes on.

Some workers have jobs in the personal service industries, staging plays or showing movies, selling lottery tickets, training people who work out at the local gym, dry cleaning clothes and styling hair. Workers in health care, education and defence are all employed in service industries that can be viewed as benefiting the community at large.

Many of these services have been part of the province's economic makeup since the first settlements came into being. Others, such as computer services or Internet providers, are part of what's often called the new economy.

Wholesale & retail trade is the biggest employer in the province

 

Figure 5 shows the number of jobs by industry in the service sector. (More information on how industries are classified may be found in Appendix 2). Wholesale & retail trade is the biggest employer, providing one out of every five service sector jobs. Health care & social assistance is the second largest employer, providing 13% of the service sector jobs. Accommodation & food services, and professional, scientific & technical services each account for about 10% of total employment in the sector.

The two biggest industries in the service sector, wholesale & retail trade and health care & social assistance, together employ more people than all of the goods producing industries combined. Wholesale & retail trade alone employs nearly twice as many people as construction, the second-biggest industry in the goods sector.

Service sector jobs aren't necessarily entry-level positions

The stereotype of a service-sector worker as someone who has little training and limited skills, and just manages to scrape by on minimum wages from a part-time job at a fast food restaurant isn't accurate. There are many entry-level positions and minimum-wage jobs in the service sector, but that's only part of the story.

Service-sector jobs exist at all levels of training and at all points along the pay scale. Many people who work in service industries–engineers, computer scientists, doctors, lawyers and university professors, to name a few–are both highly trained and well paid. So are airline pilots, longshore workers, ferry and railway workers, and numerous others who are employed in this sector. Even fast-food workers need some training, they have to be able to use computerized cash machines and other specialized equipment and they need to know how to maintain proper health and safety standards when they're preparing food.

The goods sector includes the more ‘traditional' industries

The goods sector includes industries that you're probably more familiar with: agriculture, fishing, forestry, mining, manufacturing, construction and utilities. Manufacturing is the biggest industry within the sector, accounting for 44% of the jobs. Three out of five jobs in manufacturing are resource-related. Wood, paper, food and beverage manufacturing are the biggest resource-sector employers.

More than a third of all goods-sector jobs are in construction, the second biggest industry. Primary resource extraction and harvesting–agriculture, logging, mining and fishing–are relatively small employers, together accounting for one in six jobs in the goods sector. 

In the goods sector, most of the jobs are in manufacturing and construction

 

Wages tend to be higher in goods-producing industries…

Average wages in goods industries are about a dollar an hour higher than in the service sector, but the wage gap is shrinking

British Columbians working in the goods industries earned an average wage of $20.20 per hour in 2005. The typical wage in service industries was about a dollar less, at $19.15 per hour. The wage gap between workers in the goods and service sector is declining. In 1997, the wage difference was $2.04.

…and workers usually spend more time on the job

There are big differences between the use of part-time workers in the goods and service sectors. Part-time employment is quite common in the service sector, where one in four workers work less than 30 hours a week. In the goods industries, relatively few (one in ten) workers are employed part-time.

In the service sector, workers usually spend 35 hours a week on the job. The average work week in the goods sector is 40 hours long.

Part-time work is much more common in the service sector than in goods industries

About a third of the workers have union coverage

About a third of the workers in BC have union coverage. In the service sector, 33% of workers have union coverage, while 30% of those working in the goods sector are covered by collective agreements.

What are the most common occupations?

More than a quarter of BC's workers are in sales & service occupations

Each industry employs people in all sorts of different occupations, which can involve a broad range of skill levels. Take the health care industry, for instance. It employs managers, doctors, nurses, other health care professionals, trained technical workers like x-ray technicians, and cooks, cleaners, and laundry workers. And these are just some of the occupations represented in this industry. While some of them (such as managers and administrators) could work in any industry, others have training or skills that are very specific to health care services.

There are ten broad occupational groups that are used to describe the different types of jobs that people could have. A detailed description of them may be found in Appendix 3.

More than a quarter of the workers in BC are employed in sales or service occupations. This includes workers in retailing, food service and accommodation, as well as workers in protective and other service occupations. Examples of the types of jobs in this category include sales people, clerks, chefs, cooks, butchers, bakers, police officers, tour guides and child care workers.

Workers in business, finance & administrative occupations make up almost a fifth of the work force, while one in six are employed as trades people (mechanics, plumbers, pipe fitters, carpenters, longshore workers, labourers, and so on) or transportation equipment operators.