The New Service Class

The once lowly sector creates plenty of good-paying jobs, but workers with few skills are still left behind

It sounds at first like another cruel tale from the world of corporate layoffs. Young IBM personnel specialist, 36, loses his job last July in cutbacks at the troubled computer giant. In dismay over leaving IBM -- the company where both his parents spent their careers -- young man plunges into the harsh job market. But there the miraculous happens: after a flurry of interviews, he is hired by Electronic Payment Services, a start-up Delaware company that processes credit-card transactions, for substantially more than his old salary. "I never knew how marketable I was," says Peter Dychkewich, the hero of this...

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