Business events of the week ahead.

Byline: William Sluis

Americans who harbor doubts about the economic rebound point to manufacturing, which seems interminably stuck in low gear. A three-year hiring drought at the nation's factories has sent upwards of 2 million workers looking elsewhere for work.

Yet while production of goods remains moribund, a booming service sector has picked up much of the slack. As Americans age or seek more luxuries for their lifestyles, the need for services appears never-ending.

The pulse of services is taken again Tuesday, with the Institute for Supply Management's nonmanufacturing survey results for July. The index surged to 60.6 from 54.5 in May, nearly a three-year high.

Economist Sung Won Sohn is looking for a slight pullback in the number, to somewhere in the high 50s, if only because it has made such a rapid and unexpected advance.

"There is no question that such services as education, health care and the financial sector have held up far better than manufacturing," said Sohn, of Wells Fargo & Co. in Minneapolis.

Since early 2001, he said, 90 percent of the nation's job losses have occurred in the factory sector, and the trend seems to be continuing.