Copyright 2002 TecEd

Types of markets
Markets at work

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An industrial sector refers to a broad way of grouping similar industries. An industry means all firms in the same type of business e.g. the Banking industry refers to all businesses involved in providing financial services.

The WYNTL refers to three industrial sectors, although other textbooks sometimes refer to a fourth one. However, as far as this unit is concerned, we have the following broad groups of industries:

• Primary Sector
  made up of all those industries involved in farming or extraction industries e.g. growing crops and mining. The primary sector is the start of the chain of production.
• Secondary Sector
  made up of all those industries that manufacture goods e.g. food manufacturers and metal manufacturers. This sector is the next stage in the chain of production, following on from the Primary sector.
• Tertiary Sector
  made up of all those industries that provide services e.g. financial services and retail services (shops etc). This sector either distributes manufactured goods to customers or provides services – products that are not physical goods. Tertiary industries are at the end of the chain of production

Each of these three sectors have different types of problems: businesses operating in the Primary sector face different problems than businesses operating in the Tertiary sector. In addition, the size of each sector changes over time: in the United Kingdom the Secondary sector has been falling in importance during past decades.

To find out more, click on any of the above three sectors.