1940: Agriculture Jobs
Economist Maynard Keynes argued in the 1930s that technology was to blame for the economic downturn during The Great Depression. It was a time when labor-saving changes to jobs meant putting people out of work, such as was the case when the tractor was introduced.
The tractor was first released in 1902 but was too big and expensive for everyday farmers to get their hands on one. But when Henry Ford produced the Fordson tractor in 1917, it saturated the market.
As new technologies were introduced from power lifts and rubber tires to diesel engines, the tractor became a major cog in agriculture. When it was first introduced, roughly one-third of Americans worked on farms but by 1950, that number had dropped to only 10%, according to The Atlantic, and by 2010, that number fell to only 2% of the American workforce.
