We explain what the tertiary sector is, its main areas and examples. Also, what do the primary, secondary and quaternary sectors consist of?
What is tertiary sector?
The tertiary sector or services sector is called the link in the economic chain that, unlike the two previous economic sectors, is not dedicated to the extraction of raw materials or their transformation into consumer goods, but rather to satisfaction of operational and commercial needs or of any other nature required by both end consumers and other companies and industries.
This sector is often responsible for providing specialized support in conducting their operations to both the primary and secondary sectors, especially in matters that do not directly involve the specific economic activity to which they are dedicated.
For example, a pharmaceutical industry will require the shipment of its medicines to the people who consume them, and to do so it turns to a transportation company instead of doing it itself, thus receiving transportation services. This is known as outsourcing.
The tertiary sector It is by nature extremely diverse and specific but broadly speaking its three main areas of action are support, distribution and marketing.
- Medium Services in solving problems in a specific area, or in obtaining human or technological resources or in supervising the operating structure of the various productive forms.
- Distribution The transportation of processed goods, raw materials or people, the latter for work, recreational or any other purpose.
- Marketing It is the final step of the production chains, as it consists of bringing the final product to its consumers and making it available to the local consumer market. In some cases the latter can be really broad, as occurs with the sale on-line of products to any part of the world.
Examples from the tertiary sector
Some examples from the service sector are:
- Transport companies. Both those in charge of moving raw materials from the primary to the secondary sector, as well as those that directly offer transportation services to consumers: airlines, shipping lines, bus lines, etc.
- Book distributors. Once they come out of the printing press, the books must be distributed in stores and bookstores where they will be purchased by their readers. This work is often carried out by a distribution company.
- Department stores The goods that a store offers to the public were not made by its staff, but rather received for sale after having passed through its entire production chain. Thus, the stores are in charge of providing merchandise sales services.
- Cleaning companies Whether for offices, public spaces or factories, cleaning service companies provide essential work: keeping spaces clean and tidy, through staff trained in these tasks and equipped with the necessary equipment.
- Technical or repair services Those assistance services to repair artifacts, repair structural damage to the home or even to offer decoration changes, etc.
- Catering services For the production of events (parties, presentations, exhibitions, etc.), kitchen, beverage and catering services are usually required, for which there are companies available on the market.
Primary sector
The primary sector is the one that begins the productive chain, through the extraction or obtaining of resources from nature: the raw material. Said raw material is obtained by intervening in the environment and often under strict ecological or operational rules that the State has the mission of supervising, since the primary sector usually operates under the figure of state bidding: a legal permit to extract a good or a resource.
Secondary sector
The secondary sector receives the raw material from the primary sector and is responsible for subjecting it to specialized transformation procedures, thus obtaining processed products ready for consumption, or semi-finished products that will in turn go to another industry in the sector to form part of other products. elaborated. It is the industrial sector par excellence, the person in charge of manufacturing the things we consume.
Continue in: Secondary sector
Quaternary sector
The quaternary sector is born from a specialization of the tertiary sector, since this is the knowledge sector. Its offer is based on services that are impossible to mechanize and that require highly trained personnel with special knowledge, such as science, research and development, financial planning, etc.
These services are demanded by any company in the previous sectors as a method of maximizing or improving its operation, whether by incorporating new technologies, correcting its chain of operation or allowing others to carry out its personnel selection or the administration of its finances.
Quinary sector
There are few economists who refer to the existence of a quinary sector. Those who do so identify the quinary sector as the one that includes the non-routine and non-profit production services such as culture, education, entertainment and art.
