Tertiary and quaternary industry

Tertiary industry: heath service

The tertiary sector is also called the service sector. Tertiary activities involve the selling of goods and products from primary and secondary industries, and the sale of services and skills. Examples of tertiary employment include the health service, transportation, education, entertainment, tourism, finance, sales and retail [retail: the selling of goods, usually in a shop environment ], plumbers and mechanics.

The biggest area of expansion in the tertiary sector in the UK has been in financial and business services. According to government statistics, 25 years ago one in ten people worked in this industry; now this is one in five.

The quaternary sector consists of those industries providing information services, such as computing and ICT (information and communication technologies), consultancy (offering advice to businesses) and R&D (research, particular in scientific fields).

The quaternary sector is sometimes included with the tertiary sector, as they are both service sectors. Between them, the tertiary and quaternary sectors are the largest part of the UK economy, employing 76% of the workforce.

Women in the workforce

The growth in the services industry and the decline of manufacturing in the UK has been accompanied by a rise in the number of women who work. Today the number of jobs held by men and women is almost equal. The rise in numbers of working women has been helped by changes in society, including flexible working hours and changes in attitudes towards women who work. Some useful facts about working women are:

• nearly 50% of women's jobs are part-time
• 25% of women work in administrative or secretarial jobs
• more men than women hold senior and managerial roles
• in professional and technical jobs, such as nursing and computer programming, jobs are shared equally between men and women.

Retail industry: Bullring shopping centre in Birmingham, West Midlands