🔍 Read the full analysis: From Farms To Factories To Offices: How Work Is Divided on ThorstenMeyerAI.com
Get smart everyday buys delivered free with Prime
- Fast, free delivery on millions of items
- Prime Video, Amazon Music and more included
- Member-only deals all year
TL;DR
A November 2, 2026, article from ThorstenMeyerAI.com opens a series on how employment has shifted from farming to manufacturing and services. Its cited figures put U.S. farm employment at 1.5% in the ILO’s 2025 modelled estimate and say services have employed more people worldwide than farming since 2001. The article also presents a possible automation sector as the author’s thesis, not an established fact.
ThorstenMeyerAI.com published the first episode of a planned 60-part series on November 2, tracing how employment moved from farms to factories and then into services. The account uses historical and modelled estimates to show the scale of that shift, while distinguishing the three-sector framework from the author’s speculation that automation could eventually form a separate sector.
The article organizes work into three broad categories: the primary sector, which takes resources from nature; the secondary sector, which makes or builds things; and the tertiary sector, which provides services. Farming, fishing and forestry fall into the first category; manufacturing and construction into the second; and activities such as trade, transport, health care, education and government into the third. Some classifications differ: mining, for example, is counted as primary in many statistics but has been placed in the secondary sector in other systems.
The figures cited show a long decline in agriculture’s share of employment. Estimates by economic historian Stanley Lebergott put farming at 73.7% of the U.S. labor force in 1800, 40.2% in 1900 and 12.0% in 1950. The article cites an ILO modelled estimate of 1.5% for 2025. For China, it reports that the primary sector’s share fell from 83.5% in 1952 to 22.2% in 2024; for Japan, census figures show a fall from 53.8% in 1920 to 3.2% in 2020.
The account says that, according to ILO modelled estimates, services have employed more people worldwide than farming since 2001. It also challenges the claim that the United States no longer makes goods: factory employment is about 35% below its June 1979 peak, while real manufacturing output in 2025 was about 1.9 times its 1979 level, according to figures cited in the source. These measures describe different things—employment and output—and do not by themselves explain the causes of the change.
Why Sector Shifts Matter
The movement between sectors helps explain how economies can produce more food and manufactured goods with a smaller share of workers in those activities. Mechanization and other productivity changes can reduce the labor needed for particular tasks, while demand and employment grow elsewhere. The history matters to current debates about automation because it offers a framework for asking where displaced work has gone before—and whether future changes will follow a similar pattern.
But the categories are a broad statistical map, not a precise description of every job. A software engineer employed by a carmaker, for instance, may be classified as manufacturing or services depending on the statistics used. The distinction can affect how readers interpret claims about industrial decline: fewer factory jobs do not necessarily mean less manufacturing output.
Popular right now
Ninja CREAMi 7-in-1 Ice Cream Maker, NC301
LG 85-Inch QNED73B Mini LED 4K Smart TV (2026)
Samsung 75-Inch M80H Series Mini LED 4K Smart TV (2026)
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
How the Three-Sector Model Took Shape
The model was developed in stages. New Zealand economist Allan G. B. Fisher used the term “tertiary” in work written in 1934 and published in 1935. Colin Clark compared employment patterns across countries in his 1940 book, helping establish the idea that workers tend to move from agriculture into manufacturing and then services. French economist Jean Fourastié argued in 1949 that services could absorb workers released as industry became more productive.
The source describes this as an influential historical argument, not proof that every worker displaced by technology will find another job. Its own series is framed around testing the broader question of how work changes as machines take on more tasks. The first episode introduces that question; it does not establish what the long-term outcome of current automation will be.
Limits of the Employment Figures
The cited figures come from different sources, time periods and classification systems. Lebergott’s U.S. historical estimates, national census data and ILO modelled estimates are not one continuous dataset, so their definitions and methods may not be directly comparable. The source does not provide the full underlying tables or methodological detail for every figure in its summary.
It is also unclear how future automation will affect total employment or whether it will create a distinct sector. The suggestion that automation could perform up to 90% of work within a decade or a few decades is explicitly presented by the author as a thesis, not as a confirmed forecast. The article does not establish a definition of “work” for that estimate or provide evidence that the figure will be reached.
The Series Turns to Automation
The source says the daily series will run for 60 episodes, examining how the economy is built, how work has moved and which tasks may remain human as machines take on more. It says episode 48 will put the author’s automation-sector thesis on trial. The article does not provide a publication date for that installment, so the timing and evidence it will present remain to be seen.
For now, the first episode establishes the historical baseline: employment shares have shifted substantially across sectors, but that record does not settle what automation will do next. Later episodes are expected to explore the question; their findings and conclusions are not yet available.
Key Questions
What are the three sectors of the economy?
The primary sector takes resources from nature, the secondary sector makes or builds goods, and the tertiary sector provides services. Classifications can differ for activities such as mining.
When did services become the largest employer worldwide?
The source says that ILO modelled estimates show services employing more people worldwide than farming from 2001 onward. It does not provide a detailed breakdown of the estimate in the article summary.
Does the decline in U.S. factory jobs mean the country makes less?
Not necessarily. The source reports that U.S. factory employment is about 35% below its June 1979 peak, while real manufacturing output in 2025 was about 1.9 times its 1979 level. Employment and output measure different things.
Is automation already a separate economic sector?
The episode does not establish that. The author’s proposal that automation could become a sector of its own is explicitly a thesis, not a confirmed fact.
Source: ThorstenMeyerAI.com
