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TL;DR
ThorstenMeyerAI.com published the first episode of its 60-part “Work After Work” series on Nov. 2, 2026, using the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors to explain how employment has shifted over time. Historical estimates in the article show a steep decline in farming’s share of US employment and a global shift toward services; its forecast that automation could become a sector is explicitly presented as a thesis, not a confirmed trend.
ThorstenMeyerAI.com published the first episode of its planned 60-part “Work After Work” series on Nov. 2, introducing the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors as a framework for tracking how employment has moved from farming to manufacturing and services. The installment pairs that framework with historical employment estimates and labels its suggestion that automation may become a separate sector as the author’s thesis, not an established outcome.
The three-sector model groups work by what it produces. The primary sector takes resources from nature, including farming, fishing and forestry; mining is included in many classifications but not all. The secondary sector makes or builds things, including manufacturing, construction and energy. The tertiary sector covers services such as trade, transport, health care, education and government.
The article uses a loaf of bread to illustrate the categories: growing wheat is primary work, milling and baking it in a plant are secondary work, and transporting or selling it are services. It also cautions that classification can vary. A software engineer working for a carmaker, for example, may be counted under manufacturing or services depending on the statistical system.
Drawing on estimates by economic historian Stanley Lebergott, the article says farming accounted for 73.7% of the US labor force in 1800, compared with 12.0% in 1950. It cites an ILO modelled estimate of 1.5% for 2025. The source also reports that services have employed more people worldwide than farming since 2001, based on ILO modelled estimates. These figures describe employment shares, not the amount of food or goods produced.
What the Sector Shift Shows
The framework gives readers a way to distinguish changes in where people work from changes in what an economy produces. A shrinking share of workers in farming does not mean food has disappeared; the article’s central point is that employment can move as production methods and the mix of jobs change.
The distinction also matters when discussing automation. Historical shifts show that workers have moved between broad categories as economies changed, but they do not establish what will happen next. The author’s proposed automation sector—potentially performing as much as 90% of work without a human hand—is a forecast and personal thesis, not a measured current condition. The article says a later episode, number 48, will examine it.
The source also challenges the claim that the United States no longer makes things. It says US factory employment is about 35% below its June 1979 peak, while real manufacturing output in 2025 was about 1.9 times its 1979 level. Those figures show why job counts and output should not be treated as interchangeable measures.
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How Economists Built the Three-Sector Map
The category system took shape in the first half of the 20th century. The article credits New Zealand economist Allan G. B. Fisher with adding “tertiary” to the established terms “primary” and “secondary.” Fisher wrote that he had completed a book in 1934; it appeared in 1935. He later described a shift in employment from primary work to secondary and, to a greater extent, tertiary production.
Economist Colin Clark compared employment patterns across countries in his 1940 book The Conditions of Economic Progress. As the source recounts, Clark described workers moving from agriculture to manufacturing and then to commerce and services. He also observed that the industrial share of employment could rise and later decline.
French economist Jean Fourastié argued in 1949 that services could absorb workers displaced as technology increased output in industry. That was an economic argument about the future, not proof that technological change would always create enough new jobs. The episode places the idea alongside current questions about whether automation will again shift the composition of work.
Limits of the Historical Comparisons
The article combines estimates from different periods and statistical systems. Its US figures include a long-run historical series and a modelled ILO estimate for 2025, while country definitions and the treatment of activities such as mining can differ. The figures are useful for showing broad shifts, but they are not perfectly uniform measures across centuries or countries.
The source material provided here does not include the full table behind the US historical series or detailed methods for each international comparison. It also does not establish how many jobs automation currently performs without human involvement, or whether automation should be counted as a distinct economic sector. The proposed “up to 90%” figure is explicitly the author’s thesis; its timeframe is described only as within a decade or a few decades.
The Series Turns to Automation
“Work After Work” is described as a daily series of 60 episodes on how economies are built, how work has shifted and which tasks may remain human as machines take on more work. The first episode lays out the sector framework that later installments will use to discuss technologies ranging from tractors to chatbots.
The source says episode 48 will put the author’s automation thesis “on trial.” It does not give a publication date for that episode or provide a detailed test for the 90% estimate. Until further evidence and methods are supplied, the figure should be read as a proposed scenario rather than a forecast confirmed by the historical employment data.
Key Questions
What are the three sectors in the model?
The primary sector extracts or gathers resources from nature, the secondary sector makes or builds products, and the tertiary sector provides services.
What employment shift does the article report for the United States?
Using estimates attributed to Stanley Lebergott, it says farming’s share of the US labor force fell from 73.7% in 1800 to 12.0% in 1950. It also cites an ILO modelled estimate of 1.5% for 2025.
Does the article say the United States no longer manufactures goods?
No. It says US 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 article does not establish that. The suggestion that automation could become a sector and perform up to 90% of work is identified by the author as a thesis, with a timeframe of a decade or a few decades.
When will the series examine the automation thesis?
The source says episode 48 will examine it, but it gives no specific publication date for that installment.
Source: ThorstenMeyerAI.com
