What are the sectors of the economy?
Human activities which generate income are known as economic activities. Economic activities are broadly grouped into primary, secondary, tertiary activities. Higher services under tertiary activities are again classified into quaternary and quinary activities.
Let us first understand the differences between the different sectors of the economy, so that it will be easier for us to understand the factors responsible for the location of primary, secondary, and tertiary sector industries in various parts of the world (including India).
Primary activities
Primary activities are directly dependent on the environment as these refer to utilisation of earth’s resources such as land, water, vegetation, building materials and minerals. It, thus includes hunting and gathering, pastoral activities, fishing, forestry, agriculture, and mining and quarrying.
People engaged in primary activities are called red-collar workers due to the outdoor nature of their work.
Secondary activities
Secondary activities add value to natural resources by transforming raw materials into valuable products. Secondary activities, therefore, are concerned with manufacturing, processing and construction (infrastructure) industries.
People engaged in secondary activities are called blue-collar workers.
Tertiary activities
Tertiary activities include both production and exchange. The production involves the ‘provision’ of services that are ‘consumed. Exchange involves trade, transport and communication facilities that are used to overcome distance.
Tertiary jobs = White-collar jobs.
Quaternary activities
Quaternary activities are specialized tertiary activities in the ‘Knowledge Sector’ which demands a separate classification. There has been a very high growth in demand for and consumption of information-based services from mutual fund managers to tax consultants, software developers and statisticians. Personnel working in office buildings, elementary schools and university classrooms, hospitals and doctors’ offices, theatres, accounting and brokerage firms all belong to this category of services. Like some of the tertiary functions, quaternary activities can also be outsourced. They are not tied to resources, affected by the environment, or necessarily localised by market.
Quinary activities
Quinary activities are services that focus on the creation, re-arrangement and interpretation of new and existing ideas; data interpretation and the use and evaluation of new technologies. Often referred to as ‘gold collar’ professions, they represent another subdivision of the tertiary sector representing special and highly paid skills of senior business executives, government officials, research scientists, financial and legal consultants, etc. Their importance in the structure of advanced economies far outweighs their numbers. The highest level of decision-makers or policymakers performs quinary activities.
Quinary = Gold collar professions.
Integrate Learning With Test-Taking!
We are confident that you can clear UPSC Prelims 2020 if guided the right way!
Related Posts:
How will ClearIAS continue to help you learn and succeed - In times of Covid19 Lockdown and beyond
Government Budgeting in India - The Process and Constitutional Requirements
'Governance, Constitution and Social Justice' by Salman Khurshid and Gaurav Gupta - Book Review
UPSC CSE Results 2018-19 – All India Rank 2 and Rank 3 are Registered Users of ClearIAS!
excellent! please keep updating CA… thanks sir
Happy to help 🙂
Ya thank u who aploded this sectors
👍👍👍👍👍
Easy to understand… very nice explanation
certainly its not what i wanted but it’s pretty good. simple and understandable.
Its really so good ….Helpful.. In studies… Thanks
what are the disadvantages of the Sectors of Economy : Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, Quaternary and Quinary
Before knowing disadvantage of these five sectors ….take 5 mins. And think of the disadvantages of preparing for UPSc ….you will realize the disadvantages of these sectors 🤔
what are the jobs of red collar workers
workers in primary sector
Housewives should be considered in which sector?
Quinary sector
Being a housewife is not a work , its a responsiblity.
These sectors deals with money and a work of housewife is beyond that and therefore not related to any of these sectors.
Please suggest us books for sociology as optional subject..
People engaged in quaternary sector belong to which collar ?
Silver collar workers…haha..just kidding
Very helpful for my assignment 😂Thanks..
I want to know about the relationship between the sectors
thank you for this notes.
Thanks for this note very helpful..
Love this
somebody please reply,medicine hat belongs to which category
Tertiary sector
who wrote this article please?
Sir plzzz keep updating the other notes viz history economy polity environment etc. Thank you sir
It says: “Personnel working in … hospitals and doctors’ offices … belong to this category of services” under “Quaternary Activities”.
🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏👍👍👍👍👌👌👌👌👌
Amazing one, I love it
What are quaternary workers called? means which color is associated with them.
The definition of quinary activities is word to word exactly same as in the geography book of NCERT class 12th. What will you guys say about that? Did you steal the definition given by NCERT or did the NCERT publications steal your definition, because its word to word exactly same.
@ Yash – Articles in ClearIAS are created after referring multiple books and websites – that includes NCERTs. But our reference is not just limited to NCERTs. Also, the scope of changing standard definitions is very limited.
thank you very much
I cant understand about quinary activities