01-02-2017, 07:20 PM
Quote:I did and I see the 12% so I see where you got that. But this is for manufacturing whereas the others are for industry. I suspect the categories for the other three countries are more broadly defined (as there are fewer of them). The GDP figures are for industry for all four and each shows the same number of categories. So the GDP sector comparisons are more likely apples to apples than the labor comparisons.
The point is well taken, but measuring by GDP doesn't speak to the issue of employment vis automation, which is what we are discussing. Nonetheless, by any measure, their share of industry as a share of the labor force is at least as high of ours despite significantly higher levels of automation, showing that an increase in automation does not necessarily lead to a drop in the size or share of the labor force devoted to it, even in this day and age.