The Emerging Suburban Service Economy

Abstract

The growing service economy has been documented at the national level and for central cities. We examine the expansion of service jobs among suburban municipalities. We compare absolute growth in jobs in the consumer service sector with the stagnation of the manufacturing sector. We then define four types of suburbs-booming, declining, transformation, and production-based- and using probit analyses, we identify the factors associated with the distribution of communities across these. Regional patterns of economic change dominate local factors in determining membership in each category. We conclude that suburban communities are influenced by economic change generated in national and international markets.