Keep in mind, the term "wageslave" is shadowspeak. Meaning it is a term used by those in the shadows (like your runners) - If you notice, most of the books are written in a shadow perspective.
"Wageslaves" is anyone who works a regular job for a Corporation; Even if that job isn't an office job. For example, Bob the builder is a wageslave even though he isn't an office drone by the simple fact he is employed by a construction company.
And yes, Wageslaves are numerous, and have income to spend - they are the target market for many MegaCorps offerings!
If you really look close, you'll also see a lot of "leeching" going on as well within a Mega, which makes some sense from an economic point. (And this happens today too, much to the frustration of the workers in the industry!)
SK finds a new deposit of natural gas and wants to procure it for market, so they do these steps:
1: Have Legal secure the Resource rights (in house)
2: Hire an Environmental team to do an assessment of the area for construction. (Would be an SK sub)
3: Hire an Engineering firm to engineer the drilling platforms, the storage and transport systems. (another SK Sub)
4: Hire a construction firm to asses the engineer's prints for supplies materials. (SK sub)
5: Hire suppliers for the required materials -everything from nuts and bolts to structural steel!. (More SK subs)
6: Build their new refinery, well, and storage facility. (with SK sub labor)
That's a lot of money (right now, a NG well, refinery and storage costs in the low Billions), but its all SK moving money from one company they own to another, with no real expansion of material wealth, even though there was a flurry of economic
activity. (And if you look REAL close and track the money on most large projects, you'll find the same thing today. The only real economic growth comes from the workers of all these companies when they spend their wages! Hence why governments
push large infrastructure projects during economic downturns - they are hoping to stimulate the secondary markets.)
If you are looking for hard data on the number of Sinless world wide, the rule of thumb I use is a country's percentage of unemployed. Then I triple it. For example, if the unemployment rate in the US was 5%, then in SR if I need a number
for the Sinless, I assume its 15% of the city/state/country. Its fast and dirty, and can change by local factors, but it gives me a rough starting number, especially after all the factors come into play. (natural Sinless, Crash 2.0 victims, etc)