World Geography 3200/3202

Tertiary Industry Activity(The Service Sector)

So what are tertiary activities?

Tertiary Activity: Any economic activity that provides a service for people, or industry

Examples Include:

Doctors Teachers Taxi Drivers Hair Stylists

Four categories of service activities:

1. Distributive Services

2. Financial Services

3. Personal Service

4. Government service

The four Categories of service activities are:

Four Categories of Tertiary Activity1. Distributive activities:• Distribution or movement of goods and /or services.

• Involves the transportation and sale of all products from manufacturer to consumer.

• Some jobs in this area include: truck driver, warehouse manager, and sales person.

• Wholesale businesses purchase goods in large quantities from manufacturers and sell them in smaller quantities to retailers. In turn, retailers sell the goods in smaller amounts to consumers.

2. Financial Activity:• This involves providing capital for manufacturing concerns and

individual consumers. The banking industry provides the financing needed by manufacturers to purchase equipment and pay for day-to-day operations when they have money problems. Insurance companies also belong in this category. They provide coverage against losses resulting from fire, natural hazards, and lawsuits. Both banks and insurance companies tailor their service to the financial needs of individual customers.

3. Personal Service: • This is a large category of services designed to meet a wide range of

business and consumer demands. They include food services, entertainment, investment counselling, and legal assistance.

4. Government services: • These consist of medical, educational, and protective services

provided by governments for the benefit of citizens and the economy. • This category of services is the largest share of the service sector and

is also known as the public sector because they are developed, maintained and supported through public funding (taxes). People who work in these jobs are also sometimes called public servants.

• Correspondingly, categories 1, 2 and 3 are also known as the private sector.

Public vs. Private Tertiary Activity

Public service industry is run by the government and is funded by taxpayers for the good of the whole society.

Ex. Health care, public transportation, education.

Private service industry is run by private business and requires that a profit be made from the service.

Ex. mechanics, lawyers, tourism.

It is important to note that many services cannot be labelled simply private or public. There are many exceptions that cross over from one category to the other. For example: in NL most teachers teach in the publicly funded system

(K-12, MUN or CAN). However, there are several for profit private schools that also hire teachers so those teachers would not be considered public servants.

Quaternary activities

Quaternary activity: is the knowledge-based activity of the economy which typically includes services such as information generation and sharing, information technology, consultation, education, research and development, financial planning, and other knowledge-based services. Any activity that involves the collection, recoding, arranging, storage, retrieval, exchange, and dissemination of information. Computers, cell phones, e-mail, tablets, and the WWW are some of the examples of new information technology which drives the quaternary sector.