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A B S TR AC TInteractive service occupations, requiring face-to-face contact, are rapidly growing in the US as they are typically not susceptible to larger trends of off-shoring and computerization. Yet conventional paradigms of understanding the nature of that work, and in particular the skill demands, are often ill equipped to deal with the 'interactive' aspects of these gendered and racialized occupations. As a result, discussions of lower-end service occupations have typically grouped together a variety of jobs that require little or no higher education, without examining the actual skill content and job requirements of these occupations. In this article we delve more deeply into the rapidly growing non-professional service occupations in the US and the level of skills these jobs require, with the intention of creating a framework that will reorient future sociological research in this area. K EY WO R D Sfuture of work / service jobs / skills R ecent social changes challenge scholars to re-examine work worlds with a new lens. Perhaps nowhere is this more significant than in the evolving service sector. Sociologists have made significant contributions to our understanding of low-wage service jobs, introducing concepts such as emotion work, Sociology

Bio graphi cal NotePlease di rect all cor re spondence to Mary Gatta, Cen ter for Women and Work, Rutgers Uni ver sity, 162 Ry ders Lane, New Bruns wick, NJ

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