Service industries are those not directly concerned with the production of physical goods (such as

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

and

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer ...

). Some service industries, including

transportation Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land tr ...

, wholesale trade and retail trade are part of the

supply chain A supply chain is a complex logistics system that consists of facilities that convert raw materials into finished products and distribute them to end consumers or end customers, while supply chain management deals with the flow of goods in distri ...

delivering goods produced in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors to final consumers. Other services are provided directly to consumers: these include

health care Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

, information services, legal services,

financial services Financial services are service (economics), economic services tied to finance provided by financial institutions. Financial services encompass a broad range of tertiary sector of the economy, service sector activities, especially as concerns finan ...

, and

public administration Public administration, or public policy and administration refers to "the management of public programs", or the "translation of politics into the reality that citizens see every day",Kettl, Donald and James Fessler. 2009. ''The Politics of the ...

. The service sector accounts for around 70-80 per cent of employment in modern economies.

Service industries in the three-sector model

In the three-sector model of the economy, widely used in the 20th century, the service sector was assigned the role of transporting, distributing and selling goods produced in the manufacturing (secondary sector), and was therefore described as the

tertiary sector of the economy The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the seco ...

. However, the majority of service employment is now found in activities that are not directly related to the production and distribution of physical goods. In the context of the three-sector model, these are referred to as the quaternary and quinary sectors. An economy in which most economic activity is unrelated to physical goods production may be described as post-industrial.

References

{{Authority control Services sector of the economy

Service industries in the three-sector model

See also

References