Will Services Provide Our Salvation?

Some industries center on necessities and conventional wisdom might suggest that those companies might be less devastated by economic crisis. Even as auto manufacturers lay off workers, companies like Domino’s Pizza hire extra employees. Unfortunately, many of the new service jobs pay less than the old manufacturing positions, explains Hamish McRae in a column for the Independent, adding there is “the possibility that our service-heavy economy may be more resilient to the global pressures than the manufacturing-heavy economies such as Germany and Japan.” McRae expresses concern about Britain’s heavy reliance on the financial services sector. McRae concludes that “all economies are, unless economic policy is really disastrous, self-healing. Things recover.” In the end, perhaps the lesson is that countries can save costs with specialization during the good times, but reduce pain with diversification during the tough periods. – YaleGlobal