Industry is the system of organizations and activities that produce goods, services, or knowledge for income within an economy. It can mean both the overall economic structure (like manufacturing or services) and specific fields such as the tech industry or the tourist industry.

Core idea

  • In economics, an industry is a branch of the economy that produces a related set of raw materials, goods, or services (for example, the wood industry or insurance industry).
  • It generally refers to companies and activities that generate revenue by producing or supplying something of value, whether physical products, services, or information.

Main industry sectors

Economists often group industry into broad sectors.

  • Primary: Extracts or grows raw materials (agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining).
  • Secondary: Turns raw materials into finished products or infrastructure (factories, construction, energy production).
  • Tertiary: Provides services instead of tangible goods (finance, retail, transport, tourism, healthcare, education).
  • Quaternary: Focuses on knowledge and information (IT, research and development, consulting, high-level education).

Everyday uses of “industry”

  • In everyday speech, people talk about “the gas industry,” “the tourist industry,” or “manufacturing industries” to mean a particular type of economic activity or business field.
  • In career discussions (for example, among PhD students), “industry” is often contrasted with academia and used to mean working in the private sector or any organization whose main income is not research grants or teaching degrees.

Industry as a TV show

  • Industry is also the title of a TV drama about young graduates working at a high-pressure investment bank in London, focusing on both their careers and personal lives.
  • In this context, “Industry” is used as a title to evoke the world of high finance and corporate work rather than the economic concept in general.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.