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How and why has the employment structure changed since 1945 within the UK?

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Employment Structure Essay Q. How and why has the employment structure changed since 1945 within the UK? A. Employment structure is made up by three categories; they are primary, secondary, and tertiary and on a graph they would all add up to 100%. There is a fourth type of employment, quaternary, although this is not considered along with the others. This type of employment only really takes place within MEDCs as it mainly involves high levels of technology such as computers and is quite expensive to run. Primary industries are those which involve natural resources such as farming, fishing, mining and forestry. For many LEDCs, this is the main category of employment and provides a wage for a person with little skills. Secondary industries involve that of manufacturing items such as cars, newspapers and cheese manufacture. Tertiary industries cover quite a high percentage of the employment structure within MEDCs such as the UK. This is employment related to services such as education, health and retailing. ...read more.


Finally another reason for the decrease of employment in primary industry is linked to the absolute change in population. The UK has a high percentage of people aged 15-20 and these will more likely work in tertiary industries such as retailing than in primary industries such as farming, as the pay will be the same, but the work load a lot less. Secondary industries have also seen a decline in the amount of people employed within them. Mechanisation of factories alike mechanisation of farming has lead to fewer jobs within that industry. Machines can do the work of many men and companies only need pay the operator, saving them money and providing more profits. Secondary industries within the UK have a low job status, as the UK is an MEDC and so generally receive lower pay than a tertiary industry such as education or health. There is also less demand in some secondary industries such as ship building. ...read more.


Tertiary industries, unlike primary and secondary are useful for part time workers as they do not require full concentration on their job and can bring up children with the spare time they have, this is especially valid for women. There are many part time workers within the UK and in employment terms, two part time works make one full time worker so the tertiary sector is boosted by this part time factor. The National Health Service is the third biggest employer in the world and as this belongs to the tertiary industry makes up a fair few percentages in the employment structure. Looking towards the future in the UK, quaternary industries will soon develop in strength as the work is very well paid but only a few percentage of employed people possess the required skills. Primary and secondary industries will probably remain low as the profit within them is of limited scope. However the employment within tertiary industry could change over time depending on influencing factors of population growth. Tristan Robinson U6A3 ...read more.

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