January 24, 2005 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Real earnings in December 2004

Real average weekly earnings rose by 0.5 percent from November 2004 to December 2004 after seasonal adjustment.

Composition of change in real average weekly earnings of production or nonsupervisory workers on private nonfarm payrolls, December 2004
[Chart data—TXT]

This was due to a 0.1-percent increase in average hourly earnings, a 0.3-percent rise in average weekly hours, and a 0.1-percent decrease in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W).

Average weekly earnings rose by 3.3 percent, seasonally adjusted, from December 2003 to December 2004. After deflation by the CPI-W, average weekly earnings decreased by 0.2 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 December 2004" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 05-100.