🔍 Read the full analysis: What The Field, Factory, And Office Say About Work on ThorstenMeyerAI.com
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TL;DR
A November 2, 2026, article from ThorstenMeyerAI.com opens a series about how work has changed, using the three-sector model of agriculture, industry and services. Its cited figures show a long decline in farming’s share of employment and a global shift toward services; its prediction that automation could form a new sector is presented as a thesis, not an established fact.
ThorstenMeyerAI.com published the first episode of a planned 60-part series on November 2, using the shift from farm work to factories and services to introduce its account of how economies change. The installment reviews historical employment estimates and the three-sector model, while labeling its forecast of a future automation sector as the author’s thesis rather than a confirmed development.
The article organizes work into three broad categories: the primary sector, which takes resources from nature, including farming, fishing and forestry; the secondary sector, which makes or builds things, including manufacturing and construction; and the tertiary sector, which provides services such as trade, transport, health care, education and government. Mining’s classification varies across statistical systems, the article says, illustrating that the categories are useful but not perfectly consistent.
For the United States, the article cites estimates by economic historian Stanley Lebergott showing that farming accounted for 73.7% of the labor force in 1800, 54.8% in 1850, 40.2% in 1900 and 12.0% in 1950. It also cites an International Labour Organization modelled estimate that farming represented 1.5% of US employment in 2025. These figures describe employment shares, not the amount of food produced.
The account extends the comparison internationally. It says China’s primary-sector share of employment fell from 83.5% in 1952 to 22.2% in 2024, while Japan’s census recorded a decline from 53.8% in 1920 to 3.2% in 2020. Citing ILO modelled estimates, the article says 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 the figures presented.
What the Employment Shift Shows
The figures distinguish where people work from what an economy produces. A smaller share of workers in farming does not mean less food is available, just as fewer factory jobs do not by themselves show that manufacturing output has disappeared. The article’s US comparison—lower factory employment alongside higher inflation-adjusted output—illustrates why employment and production are separate measures.
The three-sector model provides a framework for examining how technology affects work. The historical account describes employment shifting from agriculture toward manufacturing and then services, but it does not establish that future automation will produce the same pattern. The author presents a forecast about machines doing more work as a thesis for later examination.
Sector shares indicate how employment is distributed and how that distribution changes over time. They do not, by themselves, explain job quality, pay, working conditions or whether workers displaced from one sector can access roles in another. The article uses the model as a broad classification of economic activity.
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How Economists Built the Three-Sector Map
The episode traces the framework to economists working in the 1930s and 1940s. New Zealand economist Allan G. B. Fisher used the term “tertiary” in work written in 1934 and published in 1935, according to the article. He later described employment shifting from primary activities into industry and, to a greater extent, services.
Colin Clark compared employment patterns across countries in his 1940 book, The Conditions of Economic Progress. He described movement from agriculture to manufacturing and then commerce and services, and observed that industrial employment’s share did not necessarily keep rising indefinitely. The article says the underlying terms “primary industry” and “secondary industry” were already used in Australia and New Zealand statistics.
In 1949, French economist Jean Fourastié argued that services could absorb workers made redundant as technology raised productivity in other sectors. The episode links that argument to differences in how quickly technical progress can increase output across types of work. It presents Fourastié’s position as a historical argument, not proof that future technological change will avoid lasting unemployment.
“A vast miscellaneous residue of activity”
— Allan G. B. Fisher, as quoted in the ThorstenMeyerAI.com article
Limits of the Sector Figures
The article draws on historical estimates, census data and ILO modelled estimates from different periods and systems. Definitions are not uniform: mining, for example, may be counted as primary or secondary activity. The episode notes that some jobs, such as software engineering within a car company, can also be classified differently depending on the statistical method. Comparisons across countries and years therefore require care.
The figures do not show how much workers earn, whether their jobs are secure, or how people moved between sectors. The article’s claim that global services employment exceeded farming from 2001 is attributed to ILO modelled estimates, but the installment does not provide the underlying series or further methodological detail in the supplied material.
The author’s forecast that automation could become a sector of its own within a decade or several decades, performing up to 90% of work without a human hand, is explicitly identified as a personal thesis. It is not a measured current condition or an established forecast, and the article gives no method or evidence in this installment to validate that percentage.
The Series Turns to Automation
The publisher describes this installment as Episode 1 of a 60-episode daily series about how economies are built, how work moves between sectors and which tasks may remain human as machines take on more work. The opening episode establishes the historical framework that later installments are expected to apply to technologies such as tractors and chatbots.
The article says Episode 48 will examine the automation thesis. The supplied material does not give a publication date for that installment or identify the evidence that will be used. The forecast remains untested in this opening episode.
Key Questions
What is the three-sector model?
It groups economic activity into primary work that takes resources from nature, secondary work that makes or builds goods, and tertiary work that provides services. Statistical definitions can differ, including over where mining belongs.
What does the article say changed in US employment?
It cites estimates showing farming’s share of the US labor force falling from 73.7% in 1800 to an ILO modelled estimate of 1.5% in 2025. The figures refer to employment shares, not food output.
Does the article say the United States stopped manufacturing?
No. It reports that factory jobs were about 35% below their June 1979 peak, while real manufacturing output in 2025 was about 1.9 times its 1979 level. Employment and output are different measures.
Is the proposed automation sector a confirmed development?
No. The author calls the idea that automation could become a separate sector and perform up to 90% of work a personal thesis. The article presents it as a proposition for later episodes to examine, not as a verified outcome.
Source: ThorstenMeyerAI.com
