Economists generally divide an economy into three broad sectors. They are;

1. primary sector.
2. secondary sector.
3. tertiary sector.

Primary sector includes agriculture and allied activities. Secondary sector consists of manufacturing and construction activities and in tertiary sector various types of services e.g. transport, communication, banking, insurance, trade etc. are included.
The following table shows the percentage distribution of working persons in different sectors during the year 2011-12.

Industrial Category	Place of residence		Sex		Total Working population (%)
	Rural	Urban	Male	Female
Primary sector Secondary sector Tertiary sector	66.6 16.0 17.4	9.0 31.0 60.0	43.6 25.9 30.5	62.8 20.0 17.2	48.9 24.3 26.8
Total	100	100	100	100	100

The table clearly shows that primary sector is the main source of employment in India, which provides employment to about 50% of the workforce. Secondary sector provides employment to only 24.3% of workforce. 26.8% of the workers are employed in the service sector.
This table also shows that about two-thirds of the workforce in rural areas depend upon agriculture or allied activities. About 16% of rural workers are working in the secondary sector. Service sector provides employment to about 17% of rural workers.
Primary sector is not a major employment provider in urban areas. In urban areas people work mainly in the service sector. About 60% of urban workers are employed in the service sector. The secondary sector provides employment to about 31% of urban workforce.
Since, both men and women are heavily employed in the primary sector; concentration of women workers is very high in primary sector. About two-thirds of women workforce is employed in primary sector whereas about 45% of men are employed in that sector.