Classification of businesses

• The primary sector of industry extracts and uses the natural resources of the earth to produce raw materials used by other businesses.
• The secondary sector of industry manufactures goods using the raw materials provided by the primary sector.
• The tertiary sector of industry provides services to consumers and the other sectors of industry.
• The primary sector of industry is the most important sector in terms of the percentage of the country’s total number of workers employed in it.
• The secondary sector of industry is the most important sector in terms of the value of output of goods and services and the proportion this of total national output.
• De-industrialisation occurs when there is a decline in the importance of the secondary sector of industry in a country.
• Reasons for the changes in the relative importance of the three sectors of an industry include sources of some primary products becoming depleted and developed economies losing competitiveness in manufacturing to newly industrialised countries.
• A mixed economy is an economic system where there is both a private sector and a public sector.
• In a mixed economy, a private sector is an economic sector where a business is run by a private individual.
• In a mixed economy, a public sector is an economic sector where a business is owned by the state or government.