WASHINGTON — LOOK at the US economy and you’ll notice an unusual disconnect. The economy is being slowed by a tight job market, scant pay raises and weak business investment. Yet corporate profits are reaching record highs and fueling record stock prices.

What gives?

How are companies managing to earn so much money in a sluggish economy? And why aren’t their profits goosing the economy?

For starters, weak job growth has held down pay. And since the recession struck six years ago, businesses have been relentless in cutting costs. They’ve also stockpiled cash rather than build new products or lines of business. And they’ve been earning larger chunks of their profits overseas.

All of which is a recipe for solid profits and tepid economic growth. The economy grew at a meager annual rate of just 1.8 per cent in the first half of 2013. The unemployment rate is 7.2 per cent, far above the five per cent to six per cent considered healthy.

Even so, corporate profits equaled 12.5 per cent of the economy in the April-June quarter, just below a 60-year high reached two years ago. Profits of companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 have nearly doubled since June 2009. Earnings appear to have risen again in the July-September quarter.

Big companies like Kellogg, FedEx and Best Buy have been slashing costs in the face of slowing revenue. Their strategy has been working: Despite sluggish revenue, their profits are up.

Burger King’s sales dropped last quarter as competition intensified. Yet the company’s earnings surged because it cut expenses and enjoyed growth overseas.

“Corporations have more market power than workers have and have kept wage growth to subdued levels,” said Dean Maki, an economist at Barclays. “That’s left more for corporate profits.”

Those solid earnings have helped boost stock prices. So has the Federal Reserve’s drive to keep long-term interest rates near record lows: Lower bond yields have led many investors to shift money out of bonds and into stocks, thereby boosting stock prices.

The Dow Jones industrial average has jumped nearly 20 per cent this year, closing at 15,639 on Monday, just below its record high.

“If we ended the year at these levels, it would be a phenomenal year,” said Bob Doll, chief equity strategist with Nuveen Asset Management.

Flat pay, cutting of costs, hoarding of cash and globalisation are factors economists cite for the gap between healthy corporate profits and subpar economic growth

Wages and salaries equaled just 42.6 per cent of the economy in the April-June quarter, near a record low set in 2011.

More than 8.5 million jobs were lost in the recession and its aftermath, leaving workforces leaner and more productive. Corporate revenue rose as the economy recovered.

But workers haven’t benefited much. With unemployment still high, they’ve had little leverage to demand higher pay. Many have been happy just to have a job.

“We’ve just had a very lopsided economic recovery,” said Ethan Harris, an economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Smaller paychecks have deprived Americans of money to spend. In the 30 years before the recession, consumer spending grew an average of 3.4 per cent a year. Since 2010, just after the recovery began, it’s risen just 2.2 per cent a year.

“If workers don’t have any money, businesses don’t have any customers,” said Nick Hanauer, an entrepreneur who has written about US economic disparities.

The stock market’s gains have boosted total US household wealth. But they haven’t enriched most Americans. The wealthiest 10 per cent of households own about 80 per cent of stocks.

This week, Kellogg said it would cut about seven per cent of its workforce — 2,200 jobs — by 2017. The cuts are part of a “global efficiency and effectiveness program,” the company said.

Even though Kellogg’s sales were flat in the July-September quarter compared with a year earlier, it squeezed out 2.5 per cent more net income. A key factor: It cut administrative and borrowing costs. Its shares have risen 15 per cent in the past year.