The advance of technological progress and the increase in labour productivity lead to dramatic structural changes in the national economy of any industrialised nation. The services sector, also referred to as the "tertiary sector", has become increasingly important in the last few decades. This structural change is characterised by a considerable rise in employment of the services sector. On the other hand, traditional areas such as agriculture, forestry and industrial activities lose some of their economic significance.
For example, while in 1970 about 45% of the 26.6 million persons in employment in the former territory of the Federal Republic were employed in the services sector, 39 years later that proportion was more than 73% in Germany. In the same period the proportion of persons in employment in the industrial sector decreased by 22 percentage points, falling from 46.5% to 24.9%.
