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

Real average weekly earnings up in November 2008

Real average weekly earnings rose by 2.3 percent from October to November after seasonal adjustment.

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

This gain stemmed from a 0.4-percent increase in average hourly earnings and a 2.1-percent decrease in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). A 0.3-percent decrease in average weekly hours partially offset these positive influences.

Average weekly earnings rose by 2.8 percent, seasonally adjusted, from November 2007 to November 2008. After deflation by the CPI-W, average weekly earnings increased by 2.2 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 November 2008," (PDF) (HTML) news release USDL 08-1828.