What were the factors that transformed the american economy from agrarian to industrial?

Agriculture to Industry

Industrialization is defined by the movement from primarily agrarian labor toward urbanized, mass-producing industrial labor. This transformation corresponds with rising marginal productivity and rising real wages, albeit not consistently or equally.

According to the 1790 U. S. Census, more than 90% of all American laborers worked in farming. The productivity-and corresponding real wages-of farm labor was very low. Factory jobs tended to offer wage rates that were several times higher than farm rates. Workers eagerly moved from low-paying, hard labor in the sun to relatively high-paying, hard labor in industrial factories.

By 1890, the number of non-farm workers had overtaken the number of farmers in the U. S. This trend continued into the 20th century; farmers made up just 2.6% of the U. S. labor force in 1990.