BlackRock's Fink: US Stocks Returned 10% a Year While Wages Stalled

The S&P 500 compounded at roughly 10% a year over the past 25 years, while the median full-time worker's paycheck grew just 3% annually — and Larry Fink says that gap is tearing at the American career.

"There is a big divide right now that those who have investment assets have done better than wages," the BlackRock chairman and CEO said Wednesday at Ford's Accelerate forum at Michigan Central in Detroit. "Over the last 25 years, you invested in the U.S. stock market, you earned a 10% compounded return. We have not seen that type of increase in wages."

Fink tied the wealth divide to something he called the lost "bedrock of America": the lifetime career. "When you think about what the bedrock of America was, it was about having a career," he said. "I think we lost that." Workers, he said, began "jumping around to jobs and jobs and jobs," and the churn weakens the bond between employer and employee. "It doesn't create the stability in life."

His model was his father, who owned a shoe store and held essentially one job his whole career. Fink started working there at 11. Asked if that was legal, he joked: "I don't think anyone was paid minimum wage."

What do the numbers actually show?

The data only partly supports Fink's thesis. The median wage and salary worker had been with their current employer 4.1 years in January 2026, up from 3.5 years in January 1983, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But for older men, the decline is sharp. Male workers aged 55 to 64 saw median tenure fall from 15.3 years in 1983 to 9.6 years in 2026. Men aged 45 to 54 fell from 12.8 years to 7.7 years.

On wages, Fink's math holds. The median full-time worker earned $596 a week in the third quarter of 2001 and $1,251 in the second quarter of 2026, BLS data show — about 3% a year, or roughly 12% in real terms over 25 years. A dollar invested in the S&P 500 from late September 2001 would be worth nearly $11 today with dividends reinvested.

How bad is the skilled-trades shortage?

The panel drew on "The State of America's Skilled Trades: A National Report," released this week by the Alliance for America's Skilled Trades — founded in July by Ford, BlackRock, Google and Carhartt. Key findings cited at the forum:

• About 1.7 million skilled-trades openings a year projected through 2035.
• Only 55 people being trained for every 100 jobs available.
• About half of trainees drop out, versus roughly 90% completion in high-quality apprenticeship programs.
• 84% of students say trades deserve respect, but only 33% believe others would respect them for choosing one.

"We have huge skilled-trade shortages in plumbers and welders and electricians and on and on and on," Fink said. "And these shortages are now slowing down these projects."

Ford CEO Jim Farley, whose grandfather was an hourly Ford worker, said the dropouts fail for reasons outside the classroom: no car, no childcare, no money. "It doesn't matter how good the program is," he said. "You're not going to make it through." His fix: support services, accredited programs and employers tied to apprenticeships so trainees hold a job while they train.

What does BlackRock intend to do?

Fink framed the solution in investor terms. "As the largest investor of retirement savings, our job is to focus on the long term," he said. BlackRock is "reorienting ourselves to not just focus on the 30-, 40-year outcome," but on "investing in the beginnings of a career" — building high-paying trades jobs that let workers save for retirement and "grow with our economy by investing the excess savings."

He remains bullish. "I've never been more optimistic about the United States," Fink said, predicting "an investment boom in America" in bridges, airports, ports and technology — a boom that will stall unless the trades pipeline fills.

Alphabet and Google President Ruth Porat said training-site visits show the stakes. "Our greatest export has been our children, because they don't see hope in my town," one person in the middle of the country told her. Carhartt CEO Linda Hubbard pointed to the respect gap: "Guidance counselors aren't talking about this as an option to high school students."

With completions stuck near 50% in standard training programs, the alliance's first report makes clear that the 1.7-million-a-year demand figure cannot be met unless the cultural and practical barriers around training change fast.