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The Wall of Change

U.S. jobs from 1940 to 2025, with the technologies that changed how people work

The line climbing across this wall is the number of jobs in the United States, from about 32 million in 1940 to about 158 million in 2025. Along the way are the technologies that changed how people work, from the first electronic computer to AI. Every one of them was supposed to end work as people knew it. Every one of them did end some jobs. And the line kept climbing.

Line chart of U.S. jobs from about 32 million in 1940 to about 158 million in 2025, with ten technologies marked along the way. The same numbers are in the table below.
0M 40M 80M 120M 160M 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 32 million jobs 158 million jobs 1 1946First electronic computer 2 1956Shipping container 3 1961Factory robot 4 1969ATM 5 1974Barcode scanner 6 1979Spreadsheet 7 1981Personal computer 8 1991The web 9 2007Smartphone 10 2022AI for everyone
On a computer, move across the chart to see each year. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, total nonfarm payroll employment, via FRED (series PAYEMS). Each year is the average of its January and July counts.
See the numbers as a table
YearJobs (millions)
194031.8
194135.8
194239.4
194342.4
194442.3
194541.4
194641.0
194743.6
194844.9
194944.1
195044.5
195147.7
195248.2
195350.3
195449.2
195550.2
195652.0
195753.0
195851.6
195953.1
196054.3
196153.9
196255.3
196356.5
196457.9
196560.3
196663.4
196765.6
196867.5
196970.1
197071.1
197171.1
197273.1
197376.3
197478.4
197577.0
197679.0
197781.8
197885.9
197989.5
198090.3
198191.3
198290.0
198389.7
198493.7
198597.0
198699.1
1987101.5
1988104.7
1989107.6
1990109.5
1991108.7
1992108.6
1993110.4
1994113.6
1995116.9
1996119.2
1997122.2
1998125.5
1999128.6
2000131.6
2001132.4
2002130.7
2003130.4
2004131.3
2005133.5
2006136.0
2007137.8
2008137.9
2009132.4
2010130.1
2011131.4
2012133.7
2013135.8
2014138.3
2015141.3
2016143.9
2017146.2
2018148.3
2019150.5
2020145.6
2021144.8
2022151.5
2023155.4
2024157.4
2025158.4

Why the line kept climbing

Two findings explain it. David Autor and his colleagues at MIT matched U.S. census job titles from 1940 to 2018 and estimated that about six in ten jobs Americans held in 2018 were in occupations that did not exist in 1940. And when economist James Bessen checked the 270 occupations listed in the 1950 census, he found only one that had since disappeared mainly because of automation: elevator operator.

Most jobs changed in what people did all day, and the people in them carried the cost of that change. The free book walks through the five patterns that show up each time, and how to place your own job on the wall.

Download the free book

Sources

  • Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, FRED, All Employees, Total Nonfarm (PAYEMS), data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: fred.stlouisfed.org
  • MIT News, Most work is new work, long-term data show (April 2024): news.mit.edu
  • World Economic Forum, Automation has eliminated just one career in the last 60 years: weforum.org