Importance of the Tertiary Sector (Services)

Today it can be said with certainty that the tertiary sector is enormously important for the economy. Indeed, it uses an enormous amount of labour, unlike, for example, the secondary and primary sectors, which first require capital goods for their development. There are even services that are enormously sophisticated and high value added, such as that of the services financial or those that concern some specific technologies. It is possible, as always, to make a difference in this sense between services provided by the private sector and services provided by the public sector, also distinguishing in the latter case between services that they are inalienable and services that can be privatized.

Services are activities that satisfy needs, in the same way that it happens with goods. Obviously, unlike goods, they are intangible, that is, they are impossible to accumulate. In addition, they can only be evaluated with certainty at the moment they are consumed, because before it is impossible to understand what degree of satisfaction they will provide us, aspect in which they also differ from the goods

. Nowadays some of these activities are essential, they mean an efficient solution to different problems of society; in fact, it can be said that this sector has grown enormously over the years, growth that has to do with the development of the economy.

Services can be provided by both the public sector and the state.either. However, some types of services can only be provided by the public sector because they require some degree of detachment from private interests that an economic agent could have private. Some examples in this regard can be offered by security and justice. In other cases, on the other hand, there may be both a private and a public alternative, such as the case of education or health. However, it is preferable that the state clear the way for services that can be carried out by the private sector, that is, to refrain from generating them because it is usually very inefficient in this task. In any case, health and education would suffice for individuals who, due to economic circumstances, are deprived of it.

Finally, it should be noted that the size of the tertiary sector will give us the perspective development of a given society. Indeed, it grows when the other two sectors already reached a certain degree of fullness.