October 21, 2008 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Weekly earnings in the third quarter of 2008

Median weekly earnings of the nation's 107.2 million full-time wage and salary workers were $720 in the third quarter of 2008.

Median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers, third quarter 2007 and 2008, current and constant (1982) dollars
[Chart data—TXT]

This was 3.6 percent higher than a year earlier, compared with a gain of 5.3 percent in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) over the same period.

Data on usual earnings are collected as part of the Current Population Survey, a nationwide sample survey of households in which respondents are asked, among other things, how much each wage and salary worker usually earns. Figures in this article are not seasonally adjusted. Find more information on earnings in "Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers: Third Quarter 2008," (PDF) (HTML) news release USDL 08-1460.