Major Industry

An industry is categorized as a major industry based on factors such as its contribution to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), the percentage of the country’s population it employs and its gross business receipts.

A country’s economy is broadly divided into three sectors:

The Primary Sector: This sector is involved with transforming natural resources into primary products. A large part of the output from this sector forms the raw materials for other industries. The major industries in this sector are agriculture, fishing, forestry and mining.

The Secondary Sector: This sector creates finished products that are usable by the end consumer. The produce of the primary sector are used by the secondary sector to manufacture finished goods or as inputs for other businesses. A substantial portion of this sector comprises of businesses that have large factories, use machinery to transform raw materials into products and consume huge quantities of energy. The major industries in this sector are aerospace, apparel, automobile, chemical, textile, consumer electronics, energy, industrial equipment, metals and metalworking, shipbuilding and tobacco.

The Tertiary Sector: This sector is also called the services sector. This sector does not produce products, rather it delivers intangible goods. Services are provided by this sector to businesses as well as final consumers. These services include banking, insurance, transport, retailing, education, news, tourism and hospitality, consulting, legal practice, healthcare and entertainment.

Major Industries in the Developing and Developed World

Most economies follow a developmental progression. As a country moves from an underdeveloped stage to a developing and then a developed stage, the sector that engages the largest percentage of its population moves from the primary to the secondary and then the tertiary sector. Thus, with development, an economy’s reliance shifts away from industries like agriculture and mining, towards manufacturing and services.

For instance, the share of the contribution of the primary sector to China’s GDP fell from 28% in 1978 to 11% in 2007. This happened against the backdrop of substantial increments to the GDP figure through this period. In 2007, close to 50% of the GDP was contributed by the manufacturing industry, while the services industry contributed about 40%. This transformation was on account of the fast development and growth of consumer markets in the country and the inflow of FDIs into the nation.

On the other hand, in the US, the industries that had the highest job postings in 2009 were (in that order):

• Healthcare
• Information Technology
• Retail
• Accounting
• Financial Services and Banking
• Education
• Hospitality