ABSTRACT
One of the most widely accepted generalisations about the postindustrial or information society is that a growing share of its workforce will be employed not in farming or industry, but in the 'tertiary' sector. It is clearly true that tertiary employment has been expanding in many advanced economies of the second half of the twentieth century. But, as this trend has progressed, so it has become increasingly evident that the very idea of a tertiary sector containing everything other than farming, mining and manufacturing is too vague to be of much use in modern society. In response to this realisation, various writers have attempted to reclassify the employment structure in ways which would make better sense of contemporary occupational categories.
