Firstly, I must agree that comparing manufacturing & service industries is generally pointless. The growth in efficiency of both sectors cannot be directly compared & in many cases there is much overlap. The statistics are false unless the following is considered-
Oz Manufacturers have been divesting themselves of their production & maintenance staff at a huge rate over the past 20 yrs, primarily due to technological advances. By and large, these advances have been in electronic motors & control systems (computers). The microprocessor has replaced many a worker & mechanical systems have been developed with freedom of maintenance as a priority.
The maintenance that is required is often carried out by a specialist contractor & peaks in production labour requirements handled by contract labour companies. Services are being provided to the manufacturer that were previously handled in-house.
Also, how does one classify a contract manufacturer? Is it providing a service, manufacturing goods, or both? The plastic packaging industry comes to mind – dominated by specialist plastics moulders who contract to more than one customer. The customer owns the tooling, the moulder owns the factory & machinery. The custom moulder is manufacturing & providing a service in unison.

I loathe the use of the term "stakeholders". It means everything and therefore nothing. Why can't people speak plainly and directly anymore? Why do groups and interests (like "customers", "potential buyers", "suppliers", "local residents") have to lose their identities and the identity of their particular interests (which sometimes overlap, sometimes collide, sometimes both) - to be subsumed in the amorphous cloud of stakeholderdom. What a cop-out! Go doorknocking Joanne, go chat to people queuing in supermarket lines; try asking the old person down the street, the school-age person plugged in to his/her iPod, the frazzled parent with toddlers - are you a stakeholder? are you? No wonder businesses have lost their way - if this is the calibre of the advice they are receiving?

And why is this website carrying articles that seem to be more tout than essay anyway?