Economic activity Flashcards
What are the different employment sectors?
Primary - Involved in the extraction of raw materials from the earth such as crops, minerals, fossil fuels (e.g. miners and farmers)
Secondary - Involved in manufacturing goods such as textiles (e.g. car factory workers)
Tertiary - Involved in providing a service such as e.g. teaching, doctors, lawyers
Quaternary - Research and development (e.g. medical research, Tech researchers)
Describe the factors affecting the location of economic activity.
Physical Factors:
Site: Accessibility to transport, land space, and restrictions (e.g., protected areas).
Raw materials: Proximity to reduce transport costs, especially crucial for heavy materials.
Electrical sources: Urban areas have higher energy supply, proximity to rivers benefits industries like refineries.
Natural routeways & Harbours: Geography impacts transportation and trade, harbours are vital for major cities.
Climate: Influences agriculture and renewable energy, affecting economic viability.
Natural hazards: Fewer hazards allow more investment in development, but some hazards can boost economic activity (e.g., fertile soil near volcanoes).
Human Factors:
Capital: Investment attractiveness based on resources, population, and government initiatives.
Labour: Cost, reputation, turnover, mobility, and quantity of labour influence location decisions.
Transport and communications: Quality of transport links affects location decisions.
Markets: Proximity to reduce transport costs and respond quickly to market demands.
Government influence: Policies, subsidies, and restrictions impact industry location.
Quality of life: Important for attracting skilled workers, influenced by factors like education and infrastructure.
Why do countries have different employment countries at different levels of development?
The Clark Fisher shows the change in economic sectors over time as a country develops from pre-industrial to industrial to post industrial. Initial countries predominantly focus on the primary sector however during the industrial period the secondary sector rises and the falls when it enters the post industrial period where the tertiary sector dominates and the quaternary sector begins to emerge.
Why do these changes in employment structures occur.
Less developed countries predominantly focus on agriculture since they can’t afford machinery that allows for mass farming therefore they use subsistence farming since that is the only way to obtain food. Additionally less people in less developed countries do not have the same access to further education therefore they are not able to work in tertiary jobs which require degrees and further qualifications.
However when countries become more developed they mechanise and are now able to produce an excess of crops so there is enough to feed the country so they shift to a more lucrative sector which is the secondary sector.
As countries continue to develop the secondary sector drops since the cost of wages is so high it is no longer profitable to they outsource it to less developed counties where the wages are lower. Furthermore they have access to higher education which enables them to find work in the tertiary and quaternary sectors. Furthermore as the life expectancy increases more people are required to work in healthcare
What are the positives and negatives of economic sector shifts in the UK?
Positives:
- Since more people are working in the tertiary sector they earn higher wages enabling them to have a higher disposable income to spend on luxuries. This increases the standard of living
- On a global scale, the UK becomes more competitive due to their higher GDP and shifts to high value services.
- New jobs are created due to a shifts in peoples needs and wants.
Negatives:
- Although new jobs are created, other jobs are lost such as factory workers leaving people unemployed since they may not have the qualifications to apply for the newer jobs created.
- As London grows it creates disparities with the rest of the nation since more people are attracted to London creating a snowball effect leading to economic depreciation in towns and city’s outside of London .
What are the positives and negatives of economic sector shifts in the China?
Positives:
- More people have money to spend on luxuries as they enter the middle class, from just 10% in 2010 to 60% 2020.
- 91% of China’s population were in poverty in 1981 to just 0.1% in 2019
- As China shifted from the primary sector it has diversified their economy therefore becoming more resilient to shocks and evolving into an economic superpower.
- Focusing on innovative sectors can enhance China’s competitiveness in the global market, positioning it as a leader in emerging industries.
Negatives:
- This growth has been largely urban and it has left people in more rural areas behind in development since they have been neglected as they are not exhibiting the same growth.
- Economic disparity in rural areas compared to coastal cities. People like farmers have not been able to catch up.
- Lots of the manufacturing comes at a high cost to the environment since the factories emit large volumes of greenhouse gases that are considerably contributing to global warming.
- Due to China’s increase in global power they have become more aggressive and hostile towards western nations.
What is informal employment and name an example of where it occurs.
The informal economy is not registered or regulated by the government. Most of the informal employment is domestic workers home based workers, street vendors and waste pickers. An example of where this occurs is in the informal settlement of Dharavi in Mumbai.
Why does informal employment occur?
- The increasing in cost of living people have struggled to earn enough money formally so they turn to the informal economy.
- Rise in tech means a lot of menial labour starts to disappear which is a huge employer in developing countries, therefore people loose their jobs and to earn money they get informal jobs.
- Rapidly growing population means there are often more people than formal job opportunities particularly in developing urban centres which see rapid rural to urban migration.
- 90% of India’s lower income population works in the informal sector. 68% of the Mumbai’s workforce works in the informal sector. So many people work in the informal sector due to high competition for formal jobs and there.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of informal employment
Advantages:
- Provides jobs for people who would otherwise be unemployed and may ne left in extreme poverty.
- Easy entry into jobs rather than high competition
- It provides cheap goods and services to the lower income population
- People employed in the informal sector can learn skills that can be used in formal employment later.
Disadvantages:
- May encourage illegal migration and abuse of undocumented migrants.
- No pension or other insurance benefits - this is very important in countries that do not have a welfare system to catch the poorest.
- Not paying tax on their work which reduces the amount of money for schools and welfare systems.
- Child labour.
What is the difference between unemployment and underemployment?
- Unemployment means people lack jobs
- Underemployment means that you have a job but not the number of hours you could work or could not be fully utilising your skills e.g. a trained lawyer working as a tesco shop assistant.
Explain both the Malthus and Boserup theories.
Malthus (1798):
The population increases exponentially however the food supply only increases arithmetically. This will lead to catastrophe and the population will fall back down below the food supplies capacity.
Boserup (1965):
The population increases exponentially and when the food supply reaches the maximum capacity a new technological advancement/innovation is made to increase the food supply each time.
