The Service Sector in Austria from 1976 to 1989

Over the last 20 years Austria was transformed from an "industrial society" to a "service society". The shares of the service sector in macroeconomic aggregates have surpassed the 50-percent-mark (nominal gross domestic product in 1975, number of persons active in the labour market in 1978, nominal private consumption in 1984). In real terms (at constant prices) this development took place more slowly because of the opposing trend in labour productivity and in prices. Labour productivity in the service sector grew more slowly and prices of services rose more steeply than in the goods-producing sector.