By Dr. Jim Simmons and Shizue Kamikihara

With this report, the CSCA continues to monitor the performance of the retail and service sectors within the Canadian economy.  We hope that the volume will be used by our members as a handy reference and that it will bring to the industry, educators, journalists and governments an appreciation of the size,, complexity and volatility of the service economy.

Professionals in the industry know that the data in the handbook also reveal the many gaps in our collective information about these sectors. We hope that we can continue to work together to improve these data bases with the help of government agencies and the cooperation of individual companies so that the next version of this publication will provide more detail about the operations of major service activities.