Economic sectors — Geography, 11–13
How jobs are grouped by what they take, make, provide or manage. Geography, 11–13 years.
Four kinds of economic work
The primary sector takes materials from nature, such as fish, crops or iron ore. The secondary sector turns materials into products, while the tertiary sector provides services such as transport or teaching. The quaternary sector works with information and ideas, including research and software.
Why group jobs?
Geographers group work to compare how places earn a living and how their economies change. In industrialisation, many workers move from farms into factories; later, services and information jobs may grow. These categories reveal a pattern, but they are not ranks: every sector can be important.
Worked example: a chocolate bar
A cocoa farmer grows and harvests beans: primary work. A factory roasts the beans and makes chocolate: secondary work. A lorry company transports it and a shop sells it: tertiary work. A food scientist tests a new recipe: quaternary work. One product can connect all four sectors.
The one-job trap
A common mistake is to classify a whole company by its most visible job. A supermarket sells goods, but its drivers, accountants and software engineers do different kinds of work. Classify the activity being described, not the building or company name, and remember that one person can have more than one role.
Where it is used
Governments use sector data when planning training, transport and investment. A region with many factories may need different skills and roads from a region built around tourism or research. When you hear that an economy is changing, sector figures help show which kinds of work are growing or shrinking.
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