Industries are groups of businesses that produce and provide similar goods or services. These industries can be classified by the nature of their activities and products, as well as the number of firms within them.
The term industry comes from Latin. Basically, it means “diligent work”. Several international organizations have proposed a unified classification of business activities, based on the definition of an industry.
Industries are a major economic activity in an economy. They are divided into several categories. There are primary and secondary sectors. Primary industry refers to the harvesting of natural resources, such as agriculture and mining, as well as manufacturing.
Secondary industry includes companies that process primary products. Businesses in the second sector are often involved in construction, manufacturing, or service industries. Some sectors are made up of intellectual activities, such as manufacturing, retailing, and tourism.
Some people also use the terms sector and industry interchangeably. Both of them refer to a large segment of the economy, but the former is a more specific term.
In addition, the word sector can be used to describe the entire economy, as in “the sector,” as opposed to a subset. Sectors can be large or small, and may be a specialized division of the economy.
The main distinction between an industry and a sector is that an industry is a specialized category of businesses, while a sector is a broad classification in the capital market. A sector is more general and involves hundreds or thousands of companies.