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

Real average weekly earnings, August 2008

On a seasonally adjusted basis, real average weekly earnings rose by 0.6 percent from July to August.

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

This increase stemmed from a 0.4-percent increase in average hourly earnings combined with a 0.2-percent decrease in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). Average weekly hours were unchanged. Real average weekly earnings are calculated by adjusting earnings in current dollars for changes in the CPI-W.

Average weekly earnings rose by 3.3 percent, seasonally adjusted, from August 2007 to August 2008. After deflation by the CPI-W, average weekly earnings decreased by 2.5 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 August 2008," (PDF) (HTML) news release USDL 08-1309.