Labor Share at bottom?

Did you notice? Labor Share is no longer going downhill:

Graph #1: Labor Share for the Business Sector and Non-Farm Business

It has been at the 100 level since 2010 and, since 2015, generally above the 100 level. So we might say labor share is on the rise, though at this rate of increase getting back to the 115 level could take a million years.

Two other measures of Labor Share also show recent increase:

Graph #2: Labor Share for Nonfinancial Corporations and the Manufacturing Sector

For Nonfinancial Corporations (blue) the values are comparable to those shown on the first graph. Here the line runs generally flat before 2000, rather than generally downhill. It runs generally below the Graph #1 values before 1970, and generally above them after 1970. It is important to note that the blue line looks low on this graph, not because the numbers are lower, but because the red line (Labor Share in the Manufacturing Sector) starts out at the 150 level.

Manufacturing shows strong increase since 2013, but also sharp decline before 2011.

The two lines on the second graph meet at the 100 level in 2012. The two lines on the first graph run near each other from one end of the graph to the other, but also find themselves at the 100 level in 2012. All four lines are at the 100 level in 2012. This is no coincidence.

All four lines are "indexed" (the numbers are tweaked) to put the 2012 values at the 100 level. The general shape of each line is not changed by the indexing, but the locations of the lines change so that they all end up at 100 in (in this case) 2012. To my eye, the indexing suggests that the manufacturing decline wasn't really so bad because it fell to the same level as the other measures of Labor Share, not below it.

That's bullshit of course, because to see it that way you have to start in 2012 and work backwards. If you really want to see how things change, you "index" them at the starting point, rather than near the end. If you were to print out Graph #2 and cut out the red line, and then slide it down the page until the start of the red line just touches the blue line, you'd get a better feel for the decline of Labor Share in manufacturing. Or do it this way:

Graph #3: Labor Share for Nonfinancial Corporations & relocated Manufacturing Sector
(Each Mfg value divided by the Mfg value for 1987 & multiplied by the NFC value for 1987Q1)

Here, things look much worse for manufacturing. This is a more honest picture, I think.

Oh: The Manufacturing line ends in 2017, in case you were wondering.