🔍 Read the full analysis: When Farming Was Nearly Everyone’s Job on ThorstenMeyerAI.com
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TL;DR
A Nov. 3 article from ThorstenMeyerAI.com traces how farming went from employing about three in four U.S. workers around 1800 to about 1.5% today. It attributes the change to gradual gains in tools, fertilizer and crop yields, while noting that roughly 928 million people still work in agriculture worldwide.
Farming’s share of U.S. work has fallen from an estimated 73.7% around 1800 to about 1.5% today, according to a report published November 3 by ThorstenMeyerAI.com. The article traces that shift through changes in farm tools, fertilizer and crop breeding, and says the pattern matters as workers and businesses consider how automation may reshape other sectors.
The report cites economic historian Stanley Lebergott’s estimate, published by the U.S. Census Bureau, that 1.4 million of the 1.9 million people in the U.S. labor force in 1800 worked in agriculture. The underlying figures count workers aged 10 and older and include about 530,000 enslaved people. The report cautions that estimates before 1840 are not census counts; its summary of the evidence is that roughly three in four workers farmed.
The shift happened over generations rather than in a single technological leap. The article points to a steel plough made in 1837, later machinery, the industrial production of ammonia fertilizer, and higher-yield crop varieties. It credits short-straw wheat developed through the work of plant breeders around Norman Borlaug with helping crops carry more grain without falling over, particularly when combined with fertilizer and irrigation.
Farm employment’s share declined before the number of farm workers did. In the United States, the article says, the farm workforce continued to grow until about 1910, reaching 11.8 million. It also cites German estimates showing agriculture’s share of workers fell from 43% in 1882 to 25% in 1939 while the number working on farms remained between 8 million and 10 million. The article gives a current global estimate of 928 million agricultural workers, about one in four workers worldwide, based on an International Labour Organization estimate for 2025.
How Farm Output Outgrew Farm Labor
The history offers a measurable example of a sector producing more while employing a smaller share of the workforce. The article says global cereal harvests grew 4.2-fold from 1961, while the world’s population grew 2.7-fold over the same period. It also reports that U.S. farm output in 2023 was nearly three times its 1948 level, with only a small rise in total inputs. These comparisons challenge the assumption that fewer farmers necessarily mean less food, though they do not by themselves explain every cause of increased output or how its gains were distributed.
For readers outside agriculture, the report’s central point is that labor-saving change can unfold slowly. Farming’s transformation took roughly two centuries in the United States, the article says, and agriculture remains a major employer in many countries. The author suggests that automation could eventually affect other large sectors, but presents that as a thesis, not a confirmed forecast. The farm’s history can inform discussion of workplace change without proving that other industries will follow the same path or pace.
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A Long Shift Across Countries
The report places the U.S. experience alongside estimates from other countries. It cites economic historians’ reconstruction that about 85% of Japan’s gainfully occupied population worked in the primary sector—farming, forestry and fishing—in 1872. China’s employment series began in 1952 with 83.5% of employed people in the primary sector, while India’s 1951 census counted cultivators and agricultural laborers as 69.7% of workers. These figures come from different years and sources, so they are comparisons of broad patterns, not a single synchronized global survey.
In Germany, a reconstruction puts the primary sector at 56.7% in 1849. The first official occupational count cited in the report, from 1882, recorded 43.4% of economically active people in agriculture and forestry. The article notes that the census undercounted women helping on family farms, meaning the reported share may not capture all agricultural work.
The report links the early predominance of farm work to the limits of food production based largely on human and animal muscle. It describes farm households using hand tools and draft animals, with yields constrained by soil and weather. In that setting, relatively few people could grow much more food than they needed, leaving a large share of the population working the land.
““Farming shows a whole sector can be emptied of human hands.””
— Thorsten Meyer, author of the November 3 article
Limits of the Employment Estimates
Several historical figures are estimates or reconstructions rather than directly comparable census results. The U.S. figure for 1800 is an estimate, the Japanese figure is a reconstruction, and the German census cited by the article may omit some women’s farm labor. Differences in definitions, dates and coverage limit precise comparisons across countries.
The article’s projection that automation could reach a sector-wide share of up to 90% is the author’s thesis, not an established finding. It does not specify which sector, a precise timeframe, or a method for calculating that share. The report also does not establish how farm automation affected wages, working conditions, migration or the distribution of economic gains. Those questions remain beyond the historical employment and output figures presented.
The Series Turns to Farm Machinery
The article identifies itself as Episode 2 of “Work After Work,” a series about how the economy is built. It says the next installment, Episode 3, will cover mechanical reapers, threshers and tractors. That follow-up may add detail on farm machinery’s role in the labor shift; the November 3 report does not provide a publication date for it.
For now, the report’s evidence supports a long-term account of agricultural employment falling as tools, fertilizer and crop varieties helped increase output. Whether other sectors will experience a comparable reduction in human labor, and on what timetable, remains open.
Key Questions
How many U.S. workers farmed around 1800?
The report cites an estimate that 73.7% of the U.S. labor force worked in agriculture in 1800—about three in four. The underlying count is an estimate, not a census result, and includes enslaved people.
How many people work in agriculture worldwide now?
The report cites an International Labour Organization estimate for 2025 of 928 million people working in agriculture, about one in four workers worldwide.
What changes helped reduce the share of workers farming?
The article describes a gradual combination of improved tools and machinery, ammonia fertilizer, and higher-yield crop varieties. It does not attribute the shift to one invention alone.
Does the report predict that automation will reach 90%?
No. The author explicitly presents the figure as a thesis, not a fact. The report does not give a specific sector, calculation method or firm timetable for that projection.
Does fewer farm workers mean less food?
The article argues that the historical record does not support that simple conclusion. It reports that global cereal harvests grew 4.2-fold from 1961, while population grew 2.7-fold over the same period; those figures do not by themselves explain all causes of higher output.
Source: ThorstenMeyerAI.com
