Economic Activity and Energy

Question 1

What are the different economic sectors?

Answer 1

Primary - extracting natural resources (mining, farming, fishing)

Secondary - processing, refining or manafacturing into finished goods (factories, food processing, building)

Tertiary - providing services (teaching, retail, medicine

Quarternary - research and development - rapidly increasing

Question 2

Factors affecting the location of economic activity in each economic sector

Answer 2

Primary - abundance of natural resources or appropriate conditions

Secondary - natural routes, transport links, proximity to raw materials, site and land (cheap and flat), proximity to town (employees and customers)

Question 3

Reasons for the change in the number of people employed in each economic sector in developing countries

Answer 3

Seen in the Clark-Fisher model.

In developing countries, the dependence on secondary economic activity increases as
- factories are located in emerging countries due to lower costs
- raw material abundance
- government policies aim to attract countries there

Question 4

Reasons for changes in the numbers of people employed in each economic sector in developed country

Answer 4

In developed countries, there is dependence on tertiary economic activities because:
- education levels are higher so people want tertiary sector jobs, which are higher paid than secondary and primary jobs
- deindustrialisation means there are fewer jobs in secondary sector
- mechanisation means there are fewer jobs in primary and secondary sector
- there is a higher demand for services because people have more disposable income

Question 5

General reasons for change in the numbers of people employed in each economic sector

Answer 5

Overall, availability of raw materials, globalisation - TNCs moving to countries with lower costs, technology, demographic changes (people have more disposable income to spend on leisure) and government policies (tax incentive).

Question 6

What is informal employment?

Answer 6

Employment that is unregulated and unofficial . Most informal employment work is in the tertiary sector e.g. shoe shining, selling fruit in the street, rubbish collecting, para-transit

Question 7

Causes of informal employment

Answer 7

• people want to avoid paying taxes
• high levels of rural-urban migration - leading to more people than jobs available
• lack of qualifications or education means people can’t get work in the formal sector

Question 8

Advantages and disadvantages of informal employment

Answer 8

Advantages

• don’t have to pay taxes (increase take-home pay)
• flexible working hours
• income even if you are not educated/qualified

Disadvantages

• low wages
• government doesn’t gain from it
• no healthcare benefits
• exposed to health and safety risks
• no guaranteed pay/work

Question 9

Energy gap

Answer 9

This is the difference between a country’s demand for energy and its ability to supply that energy from its own resources (where demand exceeds supply)