Classification of Economic Sectors & Employment (Edexcel IGCSE Geography)
Revision Note
The four economic sectors
An economic activity is the production, purchase or selling of goods and services
Economic activities can be grouped into four sectors:
Primary activities are the growth or extraction of raw materials - farming, fishing, mining and forestry
Secondary activities are when materials are processed to produce a finished product, for example, car manufacture, food processing
Tertiary activities involve the provision of a service, including retail, transport, schools, healthcare etc..
Quaternary activities include the provision of specialist information/knowledge such as research and development, information technology etc...
Worked Example
Identify what is meant by an economic sector
(1 Mark)
| A. The chain of production in manufacturing |
| B. An economic shift in employment |
| C. A classification of types of employment |
| D. A classification of employment structures |
Answer:
C (1) - a classification system for types of employment
The other answers are not related to employment sectors which are the four groups - primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary
Examiner Tips and Tricks
Remember the economic sectors can also be used to group employment types. For example, a farmer is employed in the primary sector whereas a teacher is employed in the tertiary sector.
Changes over time
Economic sectors are an indicator of a country's economic development using either:
The amount each sector contributes to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
The percentage of the population they employ
The proportions of each economic sector's GDP and employment changes over time:
In the pre-industrial period, the primary sector dominates with steady increases in the secondary and tertiary sectors
As countries develop the reliance on the primary sector for GDP and employment rapidly decreases
During the industrial period, the amount of GDP and employment in the secondary sector increases to become dominant and then decreases
The primary sector continues to decrease and the tertiary sector increases
Developed countries such as the UK, Germany and France began to move out of this stage in the 1960s
Newly industrialised (emerging) nations such as China and India began to move into this stage at that time
In the post-industrial phase, the tertiary and quaternary sectors increase whilst the secondary and primary sectors decrease
The tertiary sector dominates employment and GDP in the post-industrial period
Causes of changes over time
There are several reasons for the change in percentages employed in each sector:
Increasing mechanisation in agriculture led to a decrease in the amount of jobs available
People moving to urban areas to find jobs in secondary and tertiary sectors
Increasing mechanisation and global changes then lead to a decrease in secondary employment in some countries - this is known as deindustrialisation
Technological improvements lead to an increase in tertiary and quaternary employment
Examiner Tips and Tricks
You should be able to look at a pie chart or graph of the economic sectors and work out a country's stage of development. A developing country will be dominated by primary economic activities, an emerging country is likely to have fairly equal amounts of each type of economic sector employment, and finally, a developed country will be dominated by tertiary economic activities.
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