ABSTRACT
Shifts between the economic sectors According to economic models of capitalist development there is a shift in importance from the primary sector (agriculture, forestry, fishery) to the secondary sector (the manufacturing sector, which also includes energy, mining and the construction industry) and then to the tertiary or service sector (mainly internal and foreign trade, transport, banking, insurance and the state).1 In the first stage of development, most of the gainfully employed persons work in agriculture. In the second stage, the size of the agricultural sector declines, because mechanisation and the use of fertilizers increase agricultural productivity and raise output while making labour redundant. Redundant labour finds employment in the increasing manufacturing sector which produces an ever growing share of the gross domestic product (GDP). At the same time the tertiary sector increases, providing services for the secondary sector. During the third stage the importance of the primary sector deteriorates further, but mechanisation and rationalisation continue. This is also true of the secondary sector with the consequence that unemployment increases. People made redundant in industry are absorbed by the tertiary sector in which-at least in the early stages-rationalisation is not possible to the same degree as in the other sectors. Apart from higher productivity in the primary and secondary sectors sectoral shifts are mainly caused by the fact that with rising per capita income the demand for goods produced in the primary (and later in the secondary) sector declines relative to the secondary (and later to the tertiary) sector.2
