June 17, 2008 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Real average weekly earnings, May 2008

Real average weekly earnings fell by 0.4 percent from April 2008 to May 2008 after seasonal adjustment.

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

A 0.3-percent increase in average hourly earnings partially offset a 0.7-percent increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). Average weekly hours were unchanged.

Average weekly earnings rose by 3.2 percent, seasonally adjusted, from May 2007 to May 2008. After deflation by the CPI-W, average weekly earnings decreased by 1.2 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 May 2008,� (PDF) (HTML) news release USDL 08-0791.

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