Mind you, while the usual suspects are dithering about unemployment, threatening to not extend unemployment benefits, and screaming about the deficit while trying to extend tax cuts for the rich, this is going on:
U.S. companies’ profits rose in the third quarter to an annual rate of $1.66 trillion, the highest on record, reflecting the divergence between the recovery for the corporate sector and American households.
After-tax earnings rose by 3.2%, compared with the second quarter’s gain of 0.9%, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. Year over year, profits were 28.2% higher, as companies increased sales while keeping labor costs down.
The corporate-profit figures, which aren’t adjusted for inflation, accompanied the government’s latest estimate for overall economic growth in the third quarter. The U.S. economy expanded at a faster pace than previously thought during the quarter, in part because of stronger consumer spending and exports.
But growth remained too weak to cut the high unemployment rate.
No it didn’t. Lower unemployment would have cut into corporate profits. This wasn’t just dumb luck.