February 24, 2009 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Real average weekly earnings in January 2009

Real average weekly earnings fell by 0.1 percent from December to January after seasonal adjustment.

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

A 0.3-percent increase in average hourly earnings was offset by a 0.3-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 2.7 percent, seasonally adjusted, from January 2008 to January 2009. After deflation by the CPI-W, average weekly earnings increased by 3.4 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 2009," (PDF) (HTML) news release USDL 9-0172.