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ClearIAS » Economics Notes » Sectors of the Economy: Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, Quaternary and Quinary

Sectors of the Economy: Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, Quaternary and Quinary

Last updated on February 5, 2020 by Alex Andrews George

What are the sectors of the economy?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

What is Primary Sector?

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.

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Secondary activities

What is Secondary Sector?

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

What is tertiary sector?

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

What is Quaternary Sector?

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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

What is quinary sector?

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.

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About Alex Andrews George

Alex Andrews George is a mentor, author, and entrepreneur. Alex is the founder of ClearIAS and one of the expert Civil Service Exam Trainers in India.

He is the author of many best-seller books like 'Important Judgments that transformed India' and 'Important Acts that transformed India'.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. mathew says

    July 23, 2015 at 1:03 pm

    excellent! please keep updating CA… thanks sir

    Reply
    • ClearIAS.com says

      July 23, 2015 at 4:01 pm

      Happy to help 🙂

    • Hannsika says

      October 3, 2018 at 9:36 pm

      Ya thank u who aploded this sectors

    • Vaishnavi says

      April 23, 2019 at 12:09 pm

      👍👍👍👍👍

  2. Saku says

    December 22, 2015 at 11:36 am

    Easy to understand… very nice explanation

    Reply
  3. tushar says

    June 28, 2016 at 8:16 pm

    certainly its not what i wanted but it’s pretty good. simple and understandable.

    Reply
  4. Chandan Garg says

    July 13, 2016 at 10:34 pm

    Its really so good ….Helpful.. In studies… Thanks

    Reply
  5. karthikaa says

    July 26, 2016 at 5:26 pm

    what are the disadvantages of the Sectors of Economy : Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, Quaternary and Quinary

    Reply
    • Abhishek says

      September 12, 2018 at 10:35 pm

      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 🤔

  6. dheena says

    August 2, 2016 at 11:49 am

    what are the jobs of red collar workers

    Reply
    • reeya says

      August 2, 2016 at 3:46 pm

      workers in primary sector

  7. Deshma says

    July 29, 2017 at 10:40 pm

    Housewives should be considered in which sector?

    Reply
    • Abhishek says

      February 17, 2018 at 11:19 pm

      Quinary sector

    • Taranjeet kaur says

      February 23, 2019 at 5:39 pm

      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.

  8. Chitra says

    August 1, 2017 at 4:24 pm

    Please suggest us books for sociology as optional subject..

    Reply
  9. Shantadurga Naik says

    August 28, 2017 at 12:57 am

    People engaged in quaternary sector belong to which collar ?

    Reply
    • pooza says

      August 29, 2017 at 10:30 pm

      Silver collar workers…haha..just kidding

  10. pooza says

    August 29, 2017 at 10:29 pm

    Very helpful for my assignment 😂Thanks..

    Reply
  11. Raktima Chakraborty says

    September 29, 2017 at 4:30 pm

    I want to know about the relationship between the sectors

    Reply
  12. URMILA BADAMUNDI says

    March 6, 2018 at 3:28 pm

    thank you for this notes.

    Reply
  13. doorva says

    July 22, 2018 at 8:54 pm

    Thanks for this note very helpful..

    Reply
  14. woody says

    November 23, 2018 at 5:53 pm

    Love this

    Reply
  15. ysgcy says

    December 20, 2018 at 9:42 am

    somebody please reply,medicine hat belongs to which category

    Reply
    • Azad Amin says

      January 23, 2019 at 12:28 pm

      Tertiary sector

  16. Derek Vassallo says

    April 11, 2019 at 4:05 pm

    who wrote this article please?

    Reply
  17. Shubham Uday Mishra says

    May 9, 2019 at 1:25 pm

    Sir plzzz keep updating the other notes viz history economy polity environment etc. Thank you sir

    Reply
  18. Rachel says

    June 5, 2019 at 2:25 am

    It says: “Personnel working in … hospitals and doctors’ offices … belong to this category of services” under “Quaternary Activities”.

    Reply
  19. Sandhiya says

    August 30, 2019 at 6:29 am

    🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏👍👍👍👍👌👌👌👌👌

    Reply
  20. Wajeeha says

    November 12, 2019 at 12:02 am

    What are quaternary workers called? means which color is associated with them.

    Reply
  21. Yash Godara says

    December 13, 2019 at 12:03 am

    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.

    Reply
    • ClearIAS.com says

      December 13, 2019 at 11:08 am

      @ 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.

  22. hasnain says

    February 5, 2020 at 6:47 pm

    thank you very much

    Reply
  23. Jaeson ng says

    July 13, 2020 at 4:25 am

    1 is Hollywood an quinary industry
    Or quaternary industry?

    2. What is the thesaurus answer in economic terminology that equates to “Hollywood”? The most appropriate one that is 🙂 eg Media-cultural industry= Hollywood industry?

    3. How can I incl this Sectors of Economy in my report as biblio? Any author name , date, publisher etc?

    Thank you!

    Reply
  24. Pravin Garje says

    December 5, 2020 at 7:50 pm

    Question papers are very cheap. Not relevant to UPSC. I brought the India year book, budget, and economic survey test. I don’t recommand it.

    Reply
  25. ARRON says

    December 9, 2020 at 10:22 am

    NICE

    Reply

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