🔍 Read the full analysis: A Simple Breakdown Of Field, Factory, And Office Work on ThorstenMeyerAI.com
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TL;DR
ThorstenMeyerAI.com has launched “Work After Work,” a 60-episode series on how work and the economy change as machines take on more tasks. Its first episode explains the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors and traces the long decline in farming’s share of employment, while distinguishing historical data from the author’s speculation about automation.
ThorstenMeyerAI.com published the first episode of “Work After Work” on November 2, opening a planned 60-part series about how economies are built and how technology changes work. The installment introduces a three-sector framework—primary, secondary and tertiary work—and uses employment estimates to show how workers have moved from farming into manufacturing and services.
The framework groups work by what it produces. The primary sector takes resources from nature, including farming, fishing and forestry; mining is commonly included, though classifications differ. The secondary sector makes or builds things, covering manufacturing, construction and energy. The tertiary sector provides services, from transport and trade to health, education and government.
The episode uses a loaf of bread to illustrate the categories: growing wheat is primary work, milling flour and baking are secondary work, and transporting or selling the bread are services. The author notes that the divisions are useful but imperfect. For example, how statistics classify a software engineer employed by a car company can depend on the method used.
The article reports that, in estimates by economic historian Stanley Lebergott, farming accounted for 73.7% of the U.S. 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 U.S. employment in 2025. These figures come from different historical and statistical sources, and the article identifies the 2025 figure as a modelled estimate.
The shift is not limited to the United States. The episode says China’s primary-sector employment share 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. It also reports that ILO modelled estimates put services ahead of farming as a source of global employment from 2001 onward.
Where Workers Have Moved
The figures offer a compact way to understand a major change in the structure of work: fewer people are employed directly in farming, while more earn a living in manufacturing and services. That shift matters for how economies produce food and goods, where jobs are located, and which skills workers may need as industries change.
The series also frames a live question about technology: when machines reduce the need for some tasks, do workers find employment elsewhere? The episode presents French economist Jean Fourastié’s view that services could absorb workers displaced by productivity gains in industry. That is an argument from the history of economic thought, not proof that every worker or community affected by automation will find replacement work.
For readers, the three-sector map can help make broad labor-market statistics easier to interpret. It also cautions against equating fewer factory jobs with less manufacturing. The episode says 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. The two measures describe different things: the number of jobs and the volume of output.
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How the Three Sectors Took Shape
The episode traces the framework to economists working in the early and mid-20th century. New Zealand economist Allan G. B. Fisher used “tertiary” for the service sector in work written in 1934 and published in 1935. Colin Clark later compared employment across countries in The Conditions of Economic Progress, published in 1940, and described workers moving from agriculture to manufacturing and then toward commerce and services.
Clark also observed that industry’s share of employment does not necessarily keep rising: it can reach a peak and fall. In 1949, French economist Jean Fourastié argued that services would take in workers freed by technical progress elsewhere. His reasoning was that productivity could rise quickly in factories, while some services—such as teaching or hairdressing—were harder to scale in the same way.
The episode’s historical comparisons use sources and measures that vary by country and period. Lebergott’s U.S. series covers the labor force aged 10 and older and classifies employment by industry. Modern international estimates may use different definitions and modelling methods, so the figures should be read as evidence of a broad trend rather than as one perfectly continuous measurement.
““A vast miscellaneous residue of activity.””
— Allan G. B. Fisher, as quoted in the episode
What the Sector Data Cannot Show
The three-sector classification is not applied identically everywhere. The episode notes that mining may be counted as primary or secondary work, depending on the statistical system. It also does not provide a single harmonized dataset covering every country and year, so its country comparisons should not be treated as directly interchangeable measurements.
The source distinguishes reported historical estimates from its author’s own forward-looking argument. Thorsten Meyer offers the thesis—not an established fact—that automation could become a sector of its own within a decade or a few decades and perform up to 90% of work without a human hand. The episode provides no supporting measurement or definition for that percentage in the supplied material, and the prediction remains speculative and unverified.
It is also unclear from the episode how future installments will measure tasks automated within existing sectors or distinguish jobs eliminated from jobs changed. Those questions will affect whether automation is best understood as a separate sector or as a force reshaping work across all three.
The Series Turns to Automation
“Work After Work” is planned as a daily series of 60 episodes about the economy, changes in work and tasks that may remain human as machines take on more activity. The first episode says later installments will examine developments ranging from tractors to chatbots.
The source identifies episode 48 as the point when Meyer’s automation thesis will be examined. It does not provide a publication schedule for individual episodes beyond describing the series as daily, nor does it specify what evidence will be used to test the prediction. The next installments are expected to develop the discussion, while the extent and pace of automation remain open questions.
Key Questions
What are the three sectors of work?
Primary work takes resources from nature, such as farming and fishing; secondary work makes or builds goods; and tertiary work provides services, including trade, health care and education.
When did services overtake farming in global employment?
The episode says ILO modelled estimates show services employed more people worldwide than farming from 2001 onward. It does not provide a single global percentage in the supplied material.
Does the decline in U.S. factory jobs mean the country makes less?
Not by itself. The episode reports factory employment about 35% below its June 1979 peak, but says real manufacturing output in 2025 was about 1.9 times its 1979 level. Employment and output measure different things.
Is automation becoming a fourth sector?
That is Meyer’s thesis, not a confirmed development. The episode speculates that automation could become a sector of its own, but the supplied material does not establish that it has happened or validate the forecast.
Why can sector statistics classify the same job differently?
Statistics may classify a worker by the industry that employs them, the task they perform or a country’s specific rules. The episode gives mining and software work as examples of categories that can vary across systems.
Source: ThorstenMeyerAI.com
