The servicisation process based on the structure of employment in large German cities in 1996-2002

Abstract

The paper concentrates on the changes in the service sector as they are visible in the studies of the structure of employment in larger German towns (above 100 thousand inhabitants; exchangeably called cities later in the text) in the period 1996-2002. The population of German towns with such high number of dwellers amounts to 24 million people, who constitute 30% of the population of the country, and at the same time 40% of the employed in Germany. The analyses presented in the paper point out a few significant changes in the economy and in the social sphere of German cities. On one hand, these changes may be seen in continuous deindustrialisation; and on the other hand in a permanent growth of the service sector (characteristic of the 70s and onwards especially in East Germany). Moreover, the paper notices some additional major changes in the structure of the subsectors and movements in the structure of the employment in services in Germany.