March 18, 2008 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Real earnings, February 2008

Real average weekly earnings rose by 0.3 percent from January 2008 to February 2008 after seasonal adjustment.

Composition of change in real average weekly earnings of production or nonsupervisory workers on private nonfarm payrolls, February 2008
[Chart data—TXT]

The change resulted from a 0.3-percent increase in average hourly earnings. The Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) and average weekly hours were unchanged. 

Average weekly earnings rose by 3.7 percent, seasonally adjusted, from February 2007 to February 2008. After deflation by the CPI-W, average weekly earnings decreased by 0.8 percent.

These earnings data are from the Current Employment Statistics Program. These data are for production and nonsupervisory workers in private nonfarm establishments. Earnings data are preliminary and subject to revision. Find out more in "Real Earnings in February 2008" (PDF) (HTML), news release USDL 08-0335.