classification of economies

• What is a place shaped by?

  • The physical nature of the place 
  • What its residents do for a living
  • Connections:
  • Internal - people, employment, housing, services
  • External - government policies, globalisation
  • Changes:
  • Locally e.g. counter-urbanisation
  • Nationally e.g. government policies
  • Globally e.g. climate change, pandemics
• What are characteristics of a primary economic sector?

  • Collection of raw materials (mining) and producing good crops (farming)
  • Mainly located in rural areas
  • Tends to be low-paid, manual work
• What are characteristics of a secondary economic sector?

  • Manufacturing of raw materials into a finished product (car manufacturer)
  • More regular income than the more seasonal primary jobs
  • More secondary employment is located in northern cities - Sheffield, Middlesbrough
  • These sectors have declined over time
• What are characteristics of a tertiary economic sector?

  • Providing a service (education, sales)
  • Private (retail ) or public sector (government department)
  • Concentrated in urban areas
  • Wages vary from cleaners on minimum wage to highly paid professionals like doctors
• What are characteristics of a quaternary economic sector?

  • Providing specialist services in finance, law, hi-tech industries, and research and development
  • Requires a highly educated workforce
  • Mainly located in London and the South East
  • The fastest-growing sector in the UK
• What does the Clarke-Fisher model depict?

  • Pre-industrial The majority of the population works in the primary sector with only a small % of people employed in the secondary sector
  • Industrial The proportion of employees in the primary sector declines due to the mechanisation of farming, and as land is taken up by manufacturing, the secondary employment increases
  • Post-industrial -  There is a decrease in amount of secondary jobs due to the movement of factories overseas and cheaper imports; this coincides with an increase in employment in the tertiary and quaternary industries
• How has the UK followed the expected trends in the Clarke-Fisher model?

  • A decline in the primary and secondary sectors due to deindustrialisation employing just 1% of the workforce in primary, and 15% in secondary
  • A huge growth in the tertiary and quaternary sector, known as the new economy - employing around 84% of the population
• How can differences in economic activity can be measured by variations in social characteristics?

  • Health - those with the lowest income have the poorest quality of health
  • Life expectancy - it can be 5 years longer for people in management compared to manual workers
  • Levels of education children from lower-income families are more likely to underachieve at school and have fewer qualifications. This often results in them having lower-income jobs
• Why does economic activity vary?

  • due to education and pay:
  • Almost double the amount of adults had no educational qualifications in Middlesbrough (15.4%) compared to Reading (8.2%)
  • Over double the amount of adults had a university qualification in Reading (43%) compared to Middlesbrough (19%)
  • The average hourly pay for a male worker in Middlesbrough was £13.13 and a full-time female worker earned £509 per week, compared to Reading, which was £16.73 and £621 respectively
• What is the use of quality of life indices?

  to reflect the inequalities in pay levels across economic sectors 

  • Families with a low income rank as having a lower quality of life than richer families
• Why is there income inequality?

  • Inequalities in pay levels are linked to differences in the type of employment
  • The use of food banks has increased by 50% over the last 4 years, as people on casual contracts struggle with the rising cost of living
  • Managers and professionals are more highly paid than manual workers
  • Low-level tertiary workers will get lower pay than more skilled workers, who have more qualifications
  • Jobs may be seasonal and insecure compared with manufacturing and higher-level service