Classification of Economic Sectors & Employment (Edexcel IGCSE Geography)

The Four Economic Sectors

Spec point — 4GE1-S6.067

• An economic activity is the production, purchase or sale 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

Exam Hint 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

Spec point — 4GE1-S6.067

• Economic sectors are an indicator of a country's economic development

• This can be 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 contribution and percentage employment changes over time

Pre-industrial

• In countries in the pre-industrial **period, the primary sector is dominant

• The secondary and** tertiary sectors steadily increase

  • As countries develop, the reliance on the primary sector for GDP and employment rapidly decreases

Industrial

• 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
  • 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

Post-industrial

• 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
  • Countries such as Germany and the UK are currently in the post-industrial phase

Clark-Fisher model

• The Clark-Fisher model illustrates how employment in each economic sector changes as countries develop

The Clark-Fisher Model

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 number of jobs available
  • People move to urban areas to find jobs in the 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

Exam Hint 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
• A developed country will be dominated by tertiary economic activities.