Abstract: Under the condition of China's entry into the World Trade Organization and the deepening of marketoriented economic reform, the development of service industry is very important to the further growth of Jiangsu's national economy and the solution of employment, and it is also an effective way to improve the competitiveness of Jiangsu's manufacturing which has been an key sector of economic development. Through the shift share analysis method, this paper analyzed the structural benefit and competitiveness of Jiangsu's Service industry from 1990 to 2002 by comparing with Shanghai City and Zhejiang Province both in the Changjiang River Delta Region. Before the application of shift share analysis method, this paper reviewed some published literature and pointed out that there are shortcomings in some of these studies, mainly due to the selection of base period and frame of reference. The authors then have improved the application of shift share analysis method to make the results more reliable. The research results showed that the growth rate and structural benefit of Jiangsu's service industry are superior to Shanghai and Zhejiang, but the competitiveness is inferior to Shanghai's service industry and Zhejiang's service industry, and the latter will restrict the sustainable and rapid development of Jiangsu's service industry. For further enhancement of structural benefit and competitiveness and faster development of Jiangsu's service industry, the government from now on should start to solve problems in relation to the localization of Jiangsu's service industry development, the internal structure and the optimization of Jiangsu's service industry, the construction of talented people and the enhancement of competitiveness of Jiangsu's service industry as well as service industry deepened reforming. If the above problems were resolved in the future, the competitiveness of Jiangsu's service industry should become much better improved, and its service industry will undergo a much faster development.

Key words: service industry, shift share analysis, structural benefit analysis, competitiveness