Did Big Tech’s Productivity Gains Reach the Bottom Line?
Each dot is one company-year: farther right means more revenue per employee, while higher means a larger net-income-margin improvement. The fitted lines ask whether post-2022 efficiency gains reached the bottom line more consistently; the association is descriptive, not causal.
What does it show?
Since 2022, company-years with stronger revenue-per-employee growth have also tended to show larger margin improvements—a relationship that was almost absent before 2022.
Methodology
For Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta, calculates each annual log change in whole-company revenue per reported fiscal year-end employee and the same year’s percentage-point change in net-income margin. Separate ordinary least-squares fits describe 2017–2021 and 2022–2025. The recent slope remains positive when each company is omitted in turn. The chart is descriptive and does not estimate an individual worker’s productivity or prove that workforce changes caused margins. Prices, product and geographic mix, acquisitions, capital intensity, outsourcing, stock compensation, taxes, exceptional items, and headcount definitions can move either axis; annual observations within a company are not independent.