As of 2008, services constituted over 50% of GDP(Gross Domestic Product) in low income countries. As their economies continue to develop, the importance of the service sector continues to grow. For instance, services accounted for 47% of economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa over the period 2000–2005, while industry only contributed 37% and agriculture only 16% in that same period. This means that recent economic growth in Africa relied as much on services as on natural resources or textiles, despite many of those countries benefiting from trade preferences in primary and secondary goods.
As a result of these changes, people are leaving the agricultural sector to find work in the service economy. This job creation is particularly useful as often it provides employment for unskilled workers in the tourism and retail sectors, which benefits the poor and represents an overall net increase in employment. The service economy in developing countries is most often made up of the following industries: financial services, tourism, distribution, health, and education.
Service sector dominates the economies of other developed nations as well. As countries develop, the role of agriculture in the economy declines and that of services rises. Highly developed countries all have more than 50% of GDP and employment derived from services. A particular characteristic of the development of service employment over time is that it is less sensitive to business cycle fluctuations than other types of employment. The service sector comprises 80% of US employment, up from 55% in 1950. Most of the absolute growth in number of jobs in US in recent years is in service sector. According to University of Michigan study, a 113" cut in global barriers to trade in services would increase US annual income by $150 billion ($ 2,100 per American family of four). Total elimination of barriers in services would raise US annual income gain by over $ 450 billion ($ 6,380 per family of four). Apart from US, leaders of major global service industry associations representing the EU, Australia, Hong Kong, and Japan called for urgent progress in the multilateral liberalization of trade in services.
