March 20, 2009 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Change in real average weekly earnings, January 2009-February 2009

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

Composition of change in real average weekly earnings of production or nonsupervisory workers on private nonfarm payrolls, February 2009
[Chart data—TXT]

A 0.2-percent increase in average hourly earnings was offset by a 0.4-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 2.1 percent, seasonally adjusted, from February 2008 to February 2009. After deflation by the CPI-W, average weekly earnings increased 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 February 2009" (PDF) (HTML), news release USDL 09-0269.