February 23, 2007 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Real earnings in January

Real average weekly earnings fell by 0.3 percent from December 2006 to January 2007 after seasonal adjustment.

Composition of change in real average weekly earnings of production or nonsupervisory workers on private nonfarm payrolls, January 2007
[Chart data—TXT]

This decline stemmed from a 0.3-percent decrease in the average weekly hours and a 0.1-percent increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), which were partially offset by a 0.2-percent increase in average hourly earnings.

Average weekly earnings rose by 4.0 percent, seasonally adjusted, from January 2006 to January 2007. After deflation by the CPI-W, average weekly earnings increased by 2.1 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 January 2007," (PDF) (TXT) news release USDL 07-0282.

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