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Practice: Classifying Activities

January 15, 2025
1 min read

Classify the following activities

Read the scenarios below and classify them into Primary, Secondary, or Tertiary sectors.

Scenario 1: The Furniture Maker

Activity: A carpenter buys wood from a depot and builds a chair.

  • Answer: Secondary Sector.
  • Reason: The carpenter is transforming raw material (wood) into a finished good (chair). This is manufacturing/processing.

Scenario 2: The Coal Miner

Activity: A worker digs underground to bring coal to the surface.

  • Answer: Primary Sector.
  • Reason: This involves the direct extraction of a natural resource (mineral) from the earth.

Scenario 3: The Software Engineer

Activity: A person writes code for a new mobile app.

  • Answer: Tertiary Sector.
  • Reason: This is a service. No physical good is being extracted or manufactured directly; intellectual skill is being provided to support other functions.

Scenario 4: The Baker

Activity: Baking a cake using flour, sugar, and eggs.

  • Answer: Secondary Sector.
  • Reason: The baker processes raw food ingredients (primary outputs) into a new product (cake).

Scenario 5: The Call Center Employee

Activity: Answering customer queries over the phone.

  • Answer: Tertiary Sector.
  • Reason: This is a communication service supporting business operations.

Visual Classification Exercise

Look at the supply chain of Tomato Ketchup and identify the sectors:

TomatoPrimaryTruckTertiaryFactorySecondarySupermarketTertiary