This graph summarizes the findings of Jon Bakja and colleagues, whose 2010 paper Jobs and Income Growth of Top Earners and the Causes of Changing Income Inequality: Evidence from U.S. Tax Return Data breaks out the major occupational categories of the very rich (the top 1 percent and the top .01 percent) -- over an era in which the share of national income claimed by the very rich grew dramatically.  The most important takeaway is the marked growth of finance (the red bar on the graph) which, depending the measure, nearly doubles its occupational share of the top earners.

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