112 RALF AHRENS AND ANDRÉ STEINER
vice society” from the 1970s onward. Relying on the results of a study
that eliminated system-specifi c diff erences in the sectoral allocation of
professional and occupational structure between the GDR and the FRG,
a similar, yet delayed, process can be detected in the East.^39 Whereas
employment in the primary sector dropped by almost half in East Ger-
many in the 1970s and 1980s, the percentage of those employed in in-
dustry dropped by almost fi ve percentage points; meanwhile, employ-
ment in the service sector gained more than ten points, climbing to 51.2
percent.^40 From this perspective, the structure of the GDR economy at
the end of the 1980s resembled that of the FRG in 1981. If a higher ser-
vice sector percentage is used as a benchmark for modernity, as was
often done in studies inspired by modernization theory, the GDR lagged
behind the FRG in the transition to a service-based society. However,
the development of the service sector in the East had progressed further
than has often been surmised. The view was sometimes skewed by the
fact that many service jobs were to be found within the combinates (large
state-run combines) and industrial companies, in part because of supply
instability and scarcity within the planned economy, as well as the factory
focus of state social policy.^41
Beginning in the 1970s, employment in the industrial sector in the
FRG declined in absolute and relative terms. The share of the secondary
sector in the GDR, by comparison, began to sink in the 1970s, but ab-
solute employment still continued to climb until the mid-1980s, which
was related to the increasing overall number of employed individuals up
to 1988. One of the major factors behind these changes in the West and
the East—to a varying extent in each case—was rapid technological pro-
gress marked by the expansion of the information technology (IT) branch
and the fl exibilization of technical solutions associated with it. In turn,
this advancement was fueled by increased competition on the domes-
tic and international markets during times of crises. Due to the shape
of the respective systems, however, this process unfurled diff erently in
East and West, bearing with it disparate consequences. Ultimately, it was
technological progress that made the tertiarization of material goods pro-
duction, as well as the industrialization of the performance of services
demanded by market competition, possible. This shift became readily
apparent in the increasing number of jobs in research and development,
management, administration, and comptrollership within the industrial
sector. Furthermore, the growth in social services was accompanied by
a rapid jump in production-related services in areas such as public trans-
portation, credit and insurance business, consulting and tax advising, in-
dependent research and development, and data processing. At the same