U.S. services booming but jobs still not plentiful

[54anickel]

http://www.forbes.com/markets/newswire/2004/02/04/rtr1241767.html

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The giant U.S. services sector expanded at its fastest rate on record in January, but that growth failed to create many new jobs, a survey showed Wednesday.

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The services industry, which includes businesses ranging from hotels and restaurants to travel agencies and chain stores, accounts for roughly 80 percent of the U.S. economy.

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"Even in the go-go '90s you didn't do much better than where we are now," said Cary Leahy, senior economist at Deutsche Bank. But he cautioned that "you might raise an eyebrow about slight downward movement in employment.

"You haven't yet had a senior business executive make statements in public that are as strong as these numbers, so in some sense, investors don't really believe them," he warned.

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