Top 10% of Earners Drive a Growing Share of US Consumer Spending

Wealthy consumers continue to account for a growing share of US consumer spending, highlighting the lopsided strength of the economy as a slowdown in hiring and wariness among other income cohorts raise fears of a slowdown.

Consumers in the top 10% of the income distribution accounted for 49.2% of total spending in the second quarter, up from 48.5% in the first quarter, reaching the highest level in data going back to 1989, according to an analysis of Federal Reserve data by Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics.