🔍 Read the full analysis: From Hands-On To Desk Work: Three Job Sectors on ThorstenMeyerAI.com
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TL;DR
ThorstenMeyerAI.com launched “Work After Work,” a 60-episode series about how economies and jobs change as technology advances. Its opening episode explains the three-sector model and cites estimates showing a long-term shift in employment from farming toward manufacturing and services. The article also presents a forecast about automation as the author’s thesis, not an established outcome.
The opening episode divides economic activity into three sectors: primary work that takes resources from nature, such as farming and fishing; secondary work that makes goods, including manufacturing and construction; and tertiary work that provides services, such as transport, trade, health care and education. The author presents the categories as a useful, though imperfect, way to track employment change.
Among the figures cited, economic historian Stanley Lebergott’s estimates put farming at 73.7% of the U.S. labor force in 1800, compared with 12.0% in 1950. The episode also cites an International Labour Organization modelled estimate that farming accounted for 1.5% of U.S. employment in 2025. These figures use different sources and time periods, and the latter is identified as a modelled estimate.
The episode says the ILO’s modelled estimates show services employed more people worldwide than farming from 2001 onward. It also rejects the claim that the United States no longer makes things: the article 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 article attributes those measurements to its cited data sources.
How Sector Shifts Change Work
The sector model gives readers a framework for understanding why a smaller share of workers can produce food and manufactured goods while more people work in services. The episode’s central historical point is that employment moves between sectors; a decline in farm jobs, by itself, does not mean food production has stopped or that workers have vanished.
That framing matters as the series turns to automation. If machines reduce demand for some tasks, the open question is where displaced workers may find employment and whether new forms of work will grow. The article’s history offers examples of past shifts, but it does not establish that future workers will move in the same way or at the same pace.
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The Three-Sector Model’s Origins
The episode traces the model to economists who described and measured changes in employment during the early 20th century. It says New Zealand economist Allan G. B. Fisher used the term “tertiary” in work written in 1934 and published in 1935. Colin Clark compared employment across countries in his 1940 book, while Jean Fourastié argued in 1949 that services could take in workers released as industry became more productive.
The categories are not applied identically in every statistical system. Mining, for example, is generally treated as primary-sector work in the episode’s explanation, but it says Clark classified it as secondary and Japan’s census does so today. Some jobs, such as software work at a manufacturer, can also be classified differently depending on the statistical method.
““The three boxes are blunt.””
— Thorsten Meyer, writing on ThorstenMeyerAI.com
Limits of the Data and Forecast
The article combines estimates from different sources, dates and definitions. Its figures do not create a single fully comparable employment series, and the episode notes that sector boundaries can differ, including how mining and some technology jobs are classified. Readers should treat the cited numbers within the source and measurement contexts given.
The proposed automation sector is Meyer’s thesis, not a finding supported in the episode by a defined measure or forecast methodology. The source does not specify how “up to 90% of the work” would be measured, which jobs or countries the projection covers, or what period the estimate refers to beyond “within a decade or a few decades.”
The Series Turns to Automation
ThorstenMeyerAI.com says “Work After Work” will publish 60 episodes on how economies are built, how work changes and which tasks may remain human as machines take on more work. The opening installment establishes the sector framework; the source says episode 48 will examine Meyer’s automation thesis.
No detailed publication schedule or further episode topics are specified in the supplied material. The next installments are expected to develop the series’ account of how technology affects work, but their conclusions and evidence are not yet available here.
Key Questions
What is the “Work After Work” series?
ThorstenMeyerAI.com describes it as a 60-episode series about how economies are built, how employment shifts and how machines may change work. Its first episode was published November 2, 2026.
What are the three economic sectors?
The primary sector takes resources from nature, the secondary sector makes goods, and the tertiary sector provides services. The episode notes that some activities can be classified differently across statistical systems.
What does the episode say about U.S. farm employment?
It cites Stanley Lebergott’s estimate that farming represented 73.7% of the U.S. labor force in 1800 and an ILO modelled estimate of 1.5% of U.S. employment in 2025. The figures come from different sources and periods.
Is automation already a separate economic sector?
The episode does not establish that. Meyer says automation could become a sector of its own and labels that prediction his thesis, not a fact.
Source: ThorstenMeyerAI.com
