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FORTUNE.COM // JULY 2019
MACRO HERE’S A MYSTERY: Why is workers’ share of
total economic output declining? If you
think that’s been happening forever or that the answer
is obvious, you’d be wrong. On the contrary, through
most of the past two centuries of booms, busts, wars,
and technological revolution, labor’s share of GDP
stayed remarkably constant (around 65% in the U.S.).
That finding, when first unearthed decades ago,
surprised everyone. British economist John Maynard
Keynes called it “a bit of a miracle.” Nonetheless, it
looked like a fact of life—workers’ pay grows with GDP.
The Shifting
Fortunes of
Automation
Technology didn’t depress wages—until it
did. The hidden story in one macroeconomic
indicator could explain why. By Geoff Colvin
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PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY TRES COMMAS
