Key economic indicators

Earnings and pay

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

October 2003 3.6 3.2 3.7 3.3 4.7 3.2

November 3.2 3.6 3.0 3.0 4.2 3.3

December 3.4 3.3 3.4 3.2 4.3 3.3

January 2004 7.6 3.5 8.9 8.5 4.1 3.0

February 3.9 3.5 3.7 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 (r) 3.9 3.2 3.9 3.7 4.4 3.0

October (p) 4.2 3.4 4.3 4.0 4.8 3.0

Headline rate for October*** 4.1 3.3 4.1 3.9 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 (Jan 1987=100) % annual increase % increase in consumer prices index

October 2003 182.6 2.6 1.4

November 182.7 2.5 1.3

December 183.5 2.8 1.3

January 2004 183.1 2.6 1.4

February 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

Source: National Statistics

Full-time average weekly earnings by occupation

All workers £514.50

All male £567.40

All female £428.20

Managers £770.60

Professionals £684.60

Associate professionals* £548.70

Admin & secretarial £353.80

Skilled/craft £433.20

Services** £295.10

Sales £296.90

Operatives £389.10

Other manual jobs*** £313.20

* 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.