March 20, 2006 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Over-the-year changes in average weekly earnings, February 2006

Average real weekly earnings in current dollars rose by 3.5 percent from February 2005 to February 2006.

Percent change in average weekly earnings from the same month a year ago for workers on private nonfarm payrolls, in current and constant (1982) dollars
[Chart data—TXT]

After deflation by the Consumer Price Index for Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), average weekly earnings decreased by 0.1 percent from February 2005 to February 2006.

These earnings data are from the Current Employment Statistics Program. These data are for production and nonsupervisory workers in private nonfarm establishments. Earnings data for January and February 2006 are preliminary and subject to revision. Find out more in Real Earnings in February 2006 (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 06-460.

Happy 10th Birthday, TED!

The very first issue of The Editor's Desk (TED) was posted on September 28, 1998. TED was the first online-only publication of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For 10 years, BLS has been committed to posting a new TED article each business day, for a total of over 2,400 articles so far.

Find out more about the story of TED