🔍 Read the full analysis: Field, Factory, Office: Three Sectors That Shape Jobs on ThorstenMeyerAI.com
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TL;DR
ThorstenMeyerAI.com has launched “Work After Work,” a 60-episode series about how economies and jobs change. Its opening episode traces the long shift from farming to manufacturing and services, while emphasizing that the three-sector model is a useful but imperfect way to classify work.
ThorstenMeyerAI.com published the first episode of “Work After Work,” a planned 60-part series examining how economies and employment change, beginning with the historic shift from farming into factories and services. The episode uses the three-sector model—primary, secondary and tertiary work—to frame later discussions about technology and jobs.
The opening installment describes the primary sector as work that takes resources from nature, including farming, fishing and forestry; the secondary sector as manufacturing, construction and energy; and the tertiary sector as services such as trade, transport, health, education and government. Mining’s classification varies by statistical system, the article says.
The article reports that farming accounted for 73.7% of the U.S. labor force in 1800, according to estimates by economic historian Stanley Lebergott, and 12% in 1950. It cites an International Labour Organization modelled estimate putting agriculture at 1.5% of U.S. employment in 2025. These figures use different source series and reference periods, and the article presents them as measures of a long-term change, not a direct count of workers moving between individual jobs.
For a global marker, the episode says that services employed more people worldwide than farming from 2001, according to ILO modelled estimates. It also challenges the claim that the United States no longer makes goods: U.S. factory employment was 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 by the article.
How the Job Mix Has Changed
The episode’s central point is that a falling share of workers in agriculture does not mean food production stopped or that workers disappeared. It describes a long-term change in where people work, as mechanization and productivity altered how many workers were needed in some industries and employment expanded in others.
That distinction matters as readers assess current claims about automation. A sector’s share of employment and its total output can move in different directions: the U.S. manufacturing figures cited in the episode show fewer factory jobs alongside higher real output than in 1979. The comparison helps explain why job counts alone do not measure production, though it does not establish what caused every change or predict the next one.
The three-sector framework also gives the series a common structure for discussing work across different periods. It is an organizing tool, not a precise account of every occupation: a software engineer working for a manufacturer, for example, may be classified differently across statistics.
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How Economists Built the Three Sectors
The episode traces the framework to early 20th-century statistical categories for primary and secondary industries. It credits New Zealand economist Allan G. B. Fisher with adding “tertiary” in a book written in 1934 and published in 1935. Fisher later set out the three-part distinction in articles, according to the source.
Economist Colin Clark compared employment patterns across countries in his 1940 book, “The Conditions of Economic Progress.” He described the movement from agriculture to manufacturing and then services as an important feature of economic progress. The episode also notes Clark’s observation that industry’s share of employment need not keep rising indefinitely.
French economist Jean Fourastié argued in 1949 that services would take in workers displaced as technical progress raised productivity elsewhere. The source presents that as Fourastié’s argument, not as a guarantee that displaced workers would find jobs quickly or without disruption.
““My thesis, not a fact: within a decade or a few decades, automation could become a sector of its own, doing up to 90% of the work with no human hand.””
— Thorsten Meyer, author of the ThorstenMeyerAI.com episode
What the Sector Model Leaves Out
The three-sector categories do not classify every job consistently. The episode notes that mining can fall under primary or secondary activity depending on the statistical system, and that software work at a car company may be counted as manufacturing in one dataset and services in another. Those differences limit direct comparisons across countries and time.
The source material also does not provide the full underlying tables or methodological details for every employment figure cited. The 1.5% U.S. figure is an ILO modelled estimate for 2025, while the historical U.S. figures come from Lebergott’s estimates; their definitions and coverage should not be assumed identical. The episode’s automation forecast is expressly a thesis, and its timing and likelihood remain uncertain.
Further Episodes Will Test the Forecast
ThorstenMeyerAI.com describes “Work After Work” as a daily series of 60 episodes on how economies are built, how work has moved, and which tasks may remain human as machines take on more. The opening installment says a later episode, numbered 48, will examine the author’s proposal that automation could become a sector of its own.
The source does not give a complete publication calendar or supporting evidence for that forecast in this opening episode. Readers should treat the prediction as a question for future installments, rather than a confirmed development in employment or technology.
Key Questions
What is “Work After Work”?
It is a planned 60-episode daily series from ThorstenMeyerAI.com about the structure of the economy, changes in employment and the effects of machines on work. The first episode introduces the three-sector model.
What do primary, secondary and tertiary sectors mean?
Primary work takes resources from nature, such as farming and fishing; secondary work makes or builds things; and tertiary work provides services. Some activities, including mining, are classified differently across statistical systems.
Does the episode say the United States no longer manufactures goods?
No. It rejects that claim, citing U.S. factory employment about 35% below its June 1979 peak but real manufacturing output in 2025 at about 1.9 times its 1979 level. Those figures describe different measures: employment and output.
Is automation expected to become a separate sector?
That is Meyer’s stated thesis, not a confirmed finding. The episode predicts that automation could eventually do a large share of work without human labor, but the timing, likelihood and meaning of “sector” are not established in the source.
Source: ThorstenMeyerAI.com
