Limited Labor

As recently as 1980, it took S&P 500 firms, on average, eight employees to produce $1 million in inflation-adjusted revenue. By 1990, it was six people, and by 2000, four. Lest you think productivity slowed, by 2010 it took just 2.5 workers and today it takes just 2. Over the last forty years, the number of workers needed to produce the same output keeps falling by half every twenty years.