Quinary sector

What is the quinary sector?

The quinary sector is an economic sector that includes non-profit services, such as health, culture, education, public safety, among others; and also to various activities linked to government institutions, necessary for the functioning of the economy.

This sector includes all the organizations that are linked to the health care, education, training and recreation, in which the consumer is considered as the first beneficiary, an "equal" in the service production process. The aspect that most distinguishes quinary services from the rest is that those provided in this category have the purpose of change and modify the recipient in a lasting and important way.

The drastic changes in the economy, due to the exponential modernization as a consequence of technology and globalization, have meant that fewer people work in the primary and secondary sectors, and instead choose to carry out their activities in the tertiary sector.

Post-industrial growth, as well as increasingly marked urbanization across the globe, has made economic growth largely dependent on service delivery, which is critical to understanding today's modern economies.

Due to the very heterogeneous and perhaps disorderly tertiary category, one response to its limitations has been to extend it to two additional sectors: quaternary and quinary. The quaternary sector, among other activities, brings together financial, administrative, technology or consulting services.

For its part, in the quinary sector are the non-profit activities and the home duties that are carried out in homes.

Characteristics of the quinary sector

The main characteristics of the quinary sector are the following:

• Not for profit with the development of their activities.
• Many of the organizations that carry out their work in the quinary sector are part of the public or government administration.
• They are integral. Taken as a whole, these services follow the trajectory of the life cycle of an individual, who at birth is cared for in a public hospital, then as he grows and develops, he is instructed in the various educational levels; their security is protected by law enforcement agencies; If you want to have fun, you have the possibility of attending places that offer cultural and recreational activities, and finally, when you die, you may be buried in a municipal cemetery.
• Generates progress in gross national product and in the per capita, since it has the purpose of improve the social personality of customers, their standards of conduct, their opinion regarding society and their own image.
• The structure of the services provided in this sector facilitates the passage or entry to job opportunities or occupations. Quinary services create new opportunity structures and, to some degree, they transform the existing division of labor.
• There is a basic, persistent and ongoing need in the quinary sector to obtain the cooperation of consumers in the process of providing services. The beneficiaries of the services must behave as citizens in their interrelation with the entities that attend to their needs.
• Sometimes it is unpaid. Despite the importance of the work performed, there are cases in which it is not economically remunerated, as is the case with the domestic work performed by housewives in their residences.

Examples of the quinary sector

Some examples of the quinary sector are the following:

• Public hospitals: they provide free health services to the population that requires them.
• Citizen security: surveillance and investigation tasks carried out by police agencies.
• Public education: free education services provided by State institutions at primary, secondary and university levels.
• Non-governmental organizations (NGOs): independent and non-profit organizations that are born by civil and popular initiatives, and are linked to social, cultural or development projects that generate structural changes where they act.
• Cultural institutions: entities that are dedicated to activities related to music, theater, painting, sculpture, recreational activities, among others.
• Home duties: unpaid work performed by housewives in their homes.