U.S workers just took home their smallest share of capital since at least 1947—and the lowest ever recorded
Source: Fortune ·
American workers aren’t just getting the smallest share of GDP since records began. Their share of employment is shrinking and shrinking
From the source
As corporate earnings soar and U.S. GDP balloons, the American workforce isn’t feeling the same boom. American workers are taking home less of the country’s overall income, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows, and employment in the U.S. is set to continue to slow. Labor share, or the portion of the U.S.’s economic output that workers receive through salary and wages, decreased to 52.8% in the second quarter of 2026, its lowest level since the BLS started recording this data in 1947, according to its labor productivity and costs report. In the previous quarter, labor share was at 53.6%. This decade, the labor share average was about 55.6%. That’s despite corporate earnings skyrocketing, with profits for Fortune 500 companies hitting a record $2.1 trillion in 2025. The U.S. GDP grew 3.4% in the third quarter last year, exceeding economists’ predictions. That growth has not only come at the expense of how much of the pie of wealth workers are taking home, but also how many…
BestAIBroker analysis
- Finance-aware sentiment: slightly negative (-0.20 on a -1 to +1 scale).
- Event classification: OTHER.
- Market importance score: 31/100, weighting entity relevance, source credibility, multi-outlet coverage and recency.