Key economic indicators

Earnings and pay

% annual rise LRD average pay deals** Whole economy* Manufacturing* Services* Private sector* Public sector*

February 2004 3.7 3.6 3.6 3.8 4.4 3.0

March 4.3 3.6 4.7 4.3 4.4 3.0

April 4.5 4.7 4.3 4.6 4.1 3.1

May 4.1 4.3 3.7 4.0 4.6 3.1

June 4.1 4.1 4.0 4.0 4.5 3.1

July 3.3 3.8 2.9 3.2 3.7 3.1

August 4.1 3.3 4.0 4.0 4.5 3.0

September 3.9 3.1 3.9 3.8 4.4 3.0

October 4.2 3.4 4.3 4.1 4.8 3.0

November 4.6 2.9 4.7 4.6 4.7 3.0

December (r) 4.3 3.7 4.4 4.3 4.4 3.2

January 2005 (r) 4.2 3.0 4.3 3.9 4.7 3.5

February (p) 5.7 3.0 6.4 6.1 4.6 3.5

Headline rate for Feb*** 4.7 3.2 5.0 4.8 4.6

* Average weekly earnings in Great Britain, seasonally adjusted, as monitored by National Statistics.

** The midpoint of pay settlements for the latest three months as monitored on the Labour Research Department's PayLine database.

*** The average of the earnings increase figures for the latest three months compared with a year earlier.

(r) revised (p) provisional

Retail prices

Retail prices index* % annual increase Consumer prices index % increase

February 2004 183.8 2.5 1.3

March 184.6 2.6 1.1

April 185.7 2.5 1.2

May 186.5 2.8 1.5

June 186.8 3.0 1.6

July 186.8 3.0 1.4

August 187.4 3.2 1.3

September 188.1 3.1 1.1

October 188.6 3.3 1.2

November 189.0 3.4 1.5

December 189.9 3.5 1.6

January 2005 188.9 3.2 1.6

February 189.6 3.2 1.6

March 190.5 3.2 1.9

* Jan 1987=100

Source: National Statistics

Full-time average weekly earnings by occupation

£pw

All workers 527.10

All male 581.30

All female 438.70

Managers 789.50

Professionals 701.40

Associate professionals* 562.20

Admin & secretarial 362.50

Skilled/craft 443.80

Services** 302.30

Sales 304.20

Operatives 398.60

Other manual jobs*** 320.90

* Associate professionals include technicians, nurses, police, firefighters, media/PR workers, train drivers, legal and finance workers and sales reps.

** Services means personal service occupations such as care workers, travel assistants, hairdressers, caretakers.

** Other manual jobs refers to "elementary" occupations including farm workers, labourers, dockers, postal workers, porters, waiters, cleaners.

Source: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2004 (uprated)