Company profits ride the stimulus wave

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Wednesday’s national accounts release for the September quarter posted another 4.2% quarter-on-quarter increase in company profits, which hit a fresh record annual high of $579 billion:

By comparison, total compensation of employees only rose by 0.5% over the quarter.

The divergence between workers and bosses since the pandemic began is stark and illustrated in the next chart:

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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.