What's going on?

Dividend payouts are on course to hit $1.4 trillion this year, as � cue the wavey camera effect � companies and investors are reminded what it was like back in the good old days.

What does this mean?

Companies paid out $472 billion worth of dividends in the second quarter of 2021, up 26% from the same time last year. And sure, the jump was always going to look big given that companies were clinging onto as much cash as they could a year ago. But even if you block out the last twelve months (and we often try), payouts were only 7% lower last quarter than they were at the same time in 2019. In other words, we�re edging closer and closer to pre-pandemic levels. That gap�s only set to close too: research out on Monday from Janus Henderson showed that 84% of companies are planning to maintain or increase their dividends this year. That would bring total shareholder payouts this year to $1.4 trillion � just 3% below the beforetimes.

Why should I care?

For markets: Who are the big payers?

If you�re looking for the biggest dividend-payers, mining companies � whose earnings came back swinging with commodity prices earlier in the year � could be a good bet, along with industrials, banks, and consumer discretionaries (tweet this). �Defensive� sectors like consumer staples and telecoms, meanwhile, are lagging behind, while the pandemic-battered travel and leisure industries need every dollar they have right now.

The bigger picture: Where are the big payers?

As for where in the world to look, the UK and Europe � whose second-quarter payouts were up 61% and 66% respectively � are good leaping-off points, while Canada helped drive North American payouts to a record high. Asia�s 45% dividend growth looks good too, with Korean giant Samsung even poaching the title of world�s biggest dividend payer from Switzerland�s Nestl�. You�d do well to avoid emerging markets, though: the pandemic�s still giving their economies a particularly hard time, and their payouts fell 3% versus the same time last year.