• Roughly three-quarters of all Americans are employed in service-producing industries.
• The United States has the most service-oriented economy among the world's major industrial economies.
• Between 1946 and 1990, the goods-producing sector dropped from 41% of nonfarm employment to 23%.
• During the 1980's, the service-producing sector added more than 20 million jobs. The economy as a whole had a net increase of only 19 million jobs, because of declines registered in farming, mining, and manufacturing.
• In 1991, for the first time in the nation's history, the number of government workers (72% of them in state and local governments) exceeded manufacturing employment.
• Although manufacturing employment is higher today than in 1950, its share of total employment has fallen significantly.
• U.S. manufacturers employ virtually the same number of production workers today as they did in 1946 - about 12 million - but they produce roughly five times as many goods.
• Since the mid-1980's, the cost of labor has tripled relative to the cost of capital equipment. As a result, employers are replacing workers with equipment.
• America's service industries spent nearly $900 billion on information technology in the 1980's, more than 80% of the total amount invested. The impact of that investment on productivity will be felt over the coming decade.
• The current wave of service industry layoffs is not just a symptom of the recent recession. It is "the beginning of a productivity enhancing spree that will last until the end of the decade, and probably beyond."
• FORECAST: The Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts that 23 million out of the 24.6 million jobs expected to be created between 1990 and 2005 will be in the service producing industries.

Technology is the force of creative destruction. Technological change creates new products, new jobs, and new industries - and transforms or destroys others. Technological innovation is one of the fundamental forces causing structural shifts in the economy. In the business world, innovation has been reduced to a simple creed: innovate or perish.

• In 1992, total research and development expenditures in the United States were estimated at $157 billion. The government spent 43% of the total, industry spent 51%, and universities and nonprofits the rest.
• The United States spends more on research and development than Japan, Germany, France, the UK, and Italy combined.
• In 1990, American research and development expenditures accounted for about 2.7% of gross domestic product, slightly less than Japan (3.1%) and Germany (2.8%).
• When nondefense research and development expenditures are compared, the United States spends only 1.9% of GDP on R&D, far less than Japan (3%) or Germany (2.7%).
• Of the $70 billion spent on research and development by the federal government, roughly $41.5 billion (59%) was spent on research for national defense.
• Industry performs about 70% of all R&D activities (about $110 billion in 1992).
• U.S. spending on total R&D grew at an average annual rate of 6.6% (in real terms) in the first half of the 1980s. From 1985 to 1992 that rate dropped to 1.1%.
• About half of all research and development spending is in just five states: California, New York, Michigan, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. New Mexico, however, has the highest proportion of R&D spending as a share of its state economy (10.5% of gross state product).
• In 1991, nearly 107,000 patents were awarded in the United States, up from 66,000 in 1980.
• The percent share of U.S. patents granted to foreigners rose to 49% of the total in 1991, up from 38% in 1980.
• In every year since 1985, Japanese companies have filed more patents in the United States than American companies.
• According to the latest available data, the United States has about 949,300 scientists and engineers employed in research and development activities. Japan has 461,000, Germany 176,400, France 120,700, and the UK 102,600.
• "A great deal of work (research) shows that 95% of the stagnation on wages in the 1980s is attributable to technology."

The United States has the world's largest economy. But America's relative economic dominance is waning. The fastest growing economies and markets are overseas, mostly in developing countries. Even more that in the past, global trade will play an important role in domestic economic growth. In a global economy, businesses have to go where the growth is.

• The U.S. has less than 5% of the world's population, but it produces about a quarter of the global economic output.
• In terms of purchasing power parity (a way of measuring economic output), five of the world's twelve largest economies are developing countries - China, India, Russia, Brazil, and Mexico.
• Over the past decade, the world's fastest growing economy was China, with an average annual growth rate of 9.7% from 1983 to 1992. Other high flyers were South Korea, Botswana, Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong, with growth rates ranging from 6% to 9%.
• Industrial economies are growing more slowly. The Big G-7 countries (a group of some of the world's most powerful industrial economies) grew an average of 5.4% from 1950 to 1970 and 2.9% from 1970 to 1990.
• During the next 25 years, 95% of the growth in the world's labor supply will be in developing countries.
• In 1991, gross hourly compensation in the manufacturing sector averaged about $15.40 in the United States. According to one study, France, Japan, Austria, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, and Germany (the highest at $24.39) had higher labor costs.
• "One U.S. manufacturing job out of every six depends directly on our exports. When growth slumps abroad. it drags down our economy with it."
• Global trade and investment are key factors in global economic growth. Global merchandise trade grew by 439% between 1965 and 1990. By comparison, global production rose by 136%.
• The United States accounts for about 11.7% of world exports and 15.4% of world imports.
• During the 1980s, some $300 billion of foreign direct investment flowed into the U.S. economy.
• Of 650 overseas investments by U.S. manufacturers in 1991, only 196 went to countries with low labor costs. Why? U.S. firms seek access to the markets, technology, and skills in industrialized countries as well as cheap labor.
• FORECAST: Global economic output in 1990 was about $22 trillion. Assuming average annual growth of 3.3%, the global economy (in 1990 dollars) will total about $58 trillion in 2020. Assuming slower growth among the world's rich countries (the U.S., Japan, Europe, and the other OECD nations), their share will fall from roughly 60% of global output to about 40% by 2020. The U.S. share will fall from 24% to about 17%.

• In 1992, total exports accounted for 10.7% of U.S. gross domestic product, up from 5.6% in 1970.
• From 1986 to 1990, U.S. merchandise exports accounted for 41% of the rise in GDP (in 1982 dollars). In 1990, they contributed 88% of GDP growth.
• A U.S. Department of Commerce study estimates that 7.2 million jobs were supported by merchandise trade in 1990, up from 5.6 million in 1986.
• U.S. merchandise exports generated 25% of the growth in the nation's civilian jobs between 1986 and 1990. Each billion dollars of U.S. merchandise exported in 1990 supported, on average, 19,100 U.S. jobs.
• In 1992, America was the world's biggest exporter of services, with roughly 16% of the $1 trillion global total. In 1980, America accounted for 9% of the global total, but held second place.
• America also has the biggest trade surplus in service and was the second largest importer of services (after Germany) in 1992.
• The nation's leading export is aerospace.
• "Two thirds of U.S. exports are traded by multinational corporations."
• "About 25% of all U.S. exports and 15% of all U.S. imports are actually transfers between parents of multinational corporations and their affiliates abroad."
• In 1992, total foreign investment in the U.S. exceeded U.S. investment abroad by a record $521 billion.
• Foreign investors hold more than $2.5 trillion in U.S. assets while U.S. assets abroad total just over $2 trillion.
• In 1990, global international trade was estimated at $3.4 trillion (for the entire year). By contrast, $1 trillion a day is traded in the world's foreign exchange markets.
• In 1992 the U.S. had a $96 billion merchandise trade deficit, but it had a $61 billion trade surplus in services.
• America's leading trade partners are Canada (by far), Japan and Mexico - in that order - for both exports and imports.