English III

Service Industries

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Since the 1960s, the Korean industrial struc- ture has changed from traditional agricultural-, forestry-, and livestock-based primary industries to manufacturing-based secondary industries led by the government's manufacturing promotion policies. But manufacturing reached its peak in the 1990s and currently service industries are growing continuously and have become the main founda- tion of the Korean economy.

Service industries provide non-material products including commerce, food and lodging, tourism, transportation, communication, finance, real es- tate, health and medical care, and so forth. Unlike manufacturing, the nal products of service indus- tries are non-material—they cannot be stored and have to be consumed immediately. Consequently, production and consumption in service industries cannot be separated by time and space and have to be integrated, i.e., the time and place of production and consumption are the same. However, with the recent development of communication technolog 

and the changes in societal perception regarding copyright, the previous limitation of time and space has, to a certain extent, been removed for some service industry products.

The spectrum of service industries is almost limitless as it includes all types of economic activities that satisfy human desires apart from material goods. The activities are diverse and vary from simple labor to complex knowledge dissem- ination, and from satisfying individual needs to assisting with various other production activities. Moreover, as the scale of the economy gets larger and the standard of living improves, the demand for various service sectors becomes more diverse and rapidly-changing. The categories of service industries have expanded and the activities have become more complex. Producer services, those services assisting a business in conducting its operations, have gained more attention in recent years and play more important roles as they pro- duce new jobs by counterbalancing the job losses

that were created by the declining manufacturing sector. Producer services are also important be- cause they provide high technology jobs for other industrial activities.

Such vast and complex industrial service catego- ries can be classi ed in a myriad of ways. They in- clude service industries that handle the distribution of already produced goods such as in retailing and wholesaling; transportation and communication; and finance, insurance, and real estate that man- ages wealth and finance. Service industries were also extended to include other personal services that satisfy individual service activities as well as business services that help other producer ser- vices, and public services that help individuals and the public to participate in economic activities. A more common classi cation of service industries is the division by groups that demand services (i.e., consumer services and business services). The categories of consumer services include retail, lodging, leisure and tourism industries, personal 

services, and public services. Producer services include transportation, warehousing, financing, insurance, real estate, research and development, and advertising. 

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