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Another leading industry is the entertainment business. Motion picture production has been centered in Hollywood, California, since the early decades of the 20th century, when the budding motion picture industry discovered that the warm climate and sunny skies of southern California provided ideal conditions for film production. Other entertainment industries include theater, which tends to be located in larger urban areas, particularly New York City, and television, with major networks operating out of the New York City area. .

C2 Commerce The 1990s have been years of unrivaled prosperity in the United States, with per capita GDP reaching $30,450 by 1998. This high quality of life results partly from a rapid expansion of commerce in the years following World War II.

C2a Domestic Trade

Convenience is the key to consumer markets in the United States, whether it is fast food, movie theaters, clothing, or any of hundreds of different types of consumer goods. Products are being delivered to citizens in a more efficient manner, as industries and business firms have decentralized to more closely fit the distribution of population.
Malls have sprung up in suburban areas, making the downtown department store obsolete in many smaller cities. Manufacturers also market their goods directly to customers in factory outlet malls. Prices are often lower in these outlets than in regular retail stores. Customers often travel hundreds of miles to shop at larger factory outlet malls. At the other end of the spectrum, mail order catalogs and Internet sites have made it possible for many consumers to purchase products directly from companies by mail or using personal computers.

Wholesalers and retailers carry on most domestic commerce, or trade, in the United States. Wholesalers buy goods from producers and sell them mainly to retail business firms. Retailers sell goods to the final consumer. Wholesale and retail trade together account for 16 percent of annual GDP of the United States and employ 21 percent of the labor force.

Wholesale establishments conducted aggregate annual sales of $3.2 trillion in 1992. The leading type of wholesale business is the distribution of groceries and related products, which accounts for 16 percent of all wholesale activity. Next in rank are motor-vehicle parts and supplies; petroleum and petroleum products; professional and commercial equipment, and machinery, equipment, and supplies. Wholesalers tend to be located in large urban centers that enable them to distribute goods over wide sections of the nation. The New York City metropolitan area is the country’s leading wholesale center. It serves as the national distribution center for a variety of goods and as the main regional center for the eastern United States. Other leading wholesale centers include Los Angeles, the main center for the western part of the United
States; Chicago; San Francisco; Philadelphia; Houston; Dallas; and
Atlanta.

In the mid-1990s retail establishments in the United States had aggregate annual sales of $2.2 trillion. Automotive dealers, with 23 percent of the total yearly retail trade, and food stores, with 18 percent, are the leading retailers. The volume of retail sales is directly related to the number of consumers in an area. The four leading states in annual retail sales—California, Texas, Florida, and New York—are also the four most populous states.

C2b Foreign Trade

The United States is the world’s leading trading nation, with total merchandise exports amounting to $683 billion, and imports to $944.6 billion. Despite its massive size, large population, and economic prosperity, the United States economy can provide a higher quality of life for consumers and more opportunity for businesses by trading with other nations. Foreign, or international, trade enables the United States to specialize in producing those goods that it is best suited to make given its available resources. It then imports products that other nations can make more efficiently, lowering prices of these goods for
U.S. consumers.

Nonagricultural products usually account for 90 percent of the yearly value of exports, and agricultural products account for about 10 percent.
Machinery and transportation equipment make up the leading categories of exports, amounting together to one-third of the value of all exports.
Other leading exports include electrical equipment, chemicals, precision instruments, and food products. Beginning in the mid-1970s, the nation’s imports of petroleum from the Middle East and manufactured goods from
Canada and Asia (especially Japan) created a trade imbalance.

D Information and Technology Sector

By the end of the 20th century, many technological innovations had been introduced in the United States. Communications satellites orbited the earth, computers performed day-to-day functions in many businesses, and the Internet provided instant information on most aspects of U.S. life via computer. Developments in communications and technology have transformed many aspects of daily life in the United States, from improvements in kitchen appliances to advances in medical treatment to television broadcasts that are transmitted live via satellite from around the world.

An increasing number of job opportunities are opening in fields related to the research and application of new technology. Entirely new industries have emerged, such as companies that build the equipment used in space explorations. In addition, technology has opened new opportunities for investment and employment in established industries, such as those that manufacture medicines and machines used in the detection and treatment of diseases and individuals who market and sell products via the Internet.

D1 Communications

The communications systems in the United States are among the most developed in the world. Television, radio, newspapers, and other publications, provide most of the country’s news and entertainment. On average there are two radios and one television set for every person in the United States. Although the economic output of the communications industry is relatively small, the industry has enormous importance to the political, social, and intellectual activity of the nation. Most communication media in the United States are privately owned and operate independently of government control.

The Federal Communications Commission must license all radio and television broadcasting stations in the United States. In 1997, 1,285 television broadcasters were in operation. All states had television stations, and more than 40 percent of the stations were concentrated in nine states: Texas, California, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Illinois, Michigan, and North Carolina. A rapidly growing number of U.S. households (estimated at 64 million in 1997) subscribed to cable television. An estimated 98.3 percent of U.S. households had at least one television set. Telephone communication changed as cellular phones allowed people to communicate via telephone while away from their homes and businesses or while traveling. There were 69 million cellular phones in use in 1998.

There were 1,489 daily newspapers published in the United States in 1998,
8 fewer than the year before. Daily newspapers had a circulation of approximately 60.1 million copies in 1998. The top daily newspapers in the United States according to circulation were the Wall Street Journal
(published in New York City), USA Today (published in Arlington,
Virginia), the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times, each with a circulation in excess of 1 million. Other leading newspapers included the
Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the Chicago Tribune, the
Detroit Free Press, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Dallas Morning News, the Boston Globe, and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Nearly 21,300 periodicals were published in 1997. These ranged from specialized journals reaching only a small number of professionals to major newsmagazines such as Time, with a circulation of 4.1 million a week, and Newsweek, with a circulation of 3.2 million a week. Other mass publications with vast audiences included the weekly TV Guide, reaching
13.2 million readers, and the monthly Reader’s Digest, with a circulation of 15.1 million copies.

D2 Technology

One of the most far-reaching technological advances of the late 20th century took place in the field of computer science. Computers developed from large, cumbersome, and expensive machines to relatively small and affordable devices. The development of the personal computer (PC) in the
1970s made it possible for many individuals to own computers and allowed even small businesses to use computer technology in their operations. The
U.S. Bureau of the Census estimates that jobs in the computer industry are growing at the fastest rate of any employment area, with job openings for computer specialists expected to double from 1996 to 2006.

The Internet began in the 1960s as a small network of academic and government computers primarily involved in research for the U.S. military. Originally limited to researchers at a handful of universities and government facilities, the Internet quickly became a worldwide network providing users with information on a range of subjects and allowing them to purchase goods directly from companies via computer. By
1999, 84 million U.S. citizens had access to the Internet at home or work. More and more Americans were paying bills, shopping, ordering airline tickets, and purchasing stocks via computer over the Internet.

This article was written by Michael Watts, with the exception of the
Chief Goods and Services of the U.S. Economy section, which he reviewed.

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