Key economic indicators, March 2004

Earnings and pay

% annual rise Whole economy (1) Manufacturing (1) Services (1) Private sector (1) Public sector (1) LRD average pay deals (2) 2002

December 3.5 4.2 3.4 3.2 5.0 3.0

2003

January 3.3 3.8 3.1 2.9 5.1 3.0

February 2.9 4.4 2.5 2.4 5.2 3.0

March 4.4 6.5 4.1 4.2 5.1 3.0

April 2.6 2.6 2.6 2.0 5.1 3.2

May 3.1 3.2 3.3 2.8 4.6 3.2

June 3.2 3.0 3.3 2.6 5.4 3.3

July 3.6 3.2 3.9 3.2 5.3 3.3

August 3.5 2.9 3.8 2.9 6.0 3.1

September 3.7 3.5 3.9 3.2 5.5 3.1

October (r) 3.6 3.2 3.8 3.4 4.7 3.1

November (r) 3.2 3.6 3.0 2.9 4.2 3.3

December (p) 3.4 3.5 3.4 3.2 4.3 3.3

Headline rate for December3 3.5 3.4 3.6 3.2 4.8

1 Average weekly earnings in Great Britain, seasonally adjusted, as monitored by National Statistics. 2 The midpoint of pay settlements for the latest three months as monitored on the Labour Research Department's PayLine database. 3 The average of the earnings increase figures for the latest three months compared with a year earlier. (r) revised (p) provisional

Retail prices

Retail price index (Jan 1987=100) % annual increase % increase excluding mortgage payments 2002

December 178.5 2.9 1.7

2003

January 178.4 2.9 1.4

February 179.3 3.2 1.6

March 179.9 3.1 1.6

April 181.2 3.1 1.5

May 181.5 3.0 1.2

June 181.3 2.9 1.1

July 181.3 3.1 1.3

August 181.6 2.9 1.4

September 182.5 2.8 1.4

October 182.6 2.6 1.4

November 182.7 2.5 1.3

December 183.5 2.8 1.3

2004

January 183.1 2.6 1.4

Source: National Statistics

Full time average weekly earnings by occupation

£pw

All workers 486.30

All male 536.60

All female 404.70

Managers 763.90

Professionals 665.00

Associate professionals1 539.50

Admin & secretarial 345.80

Skilled/craft 421.50

Services2 289.10

Sales 295.30

Operatives 382.00

Other manual jobs3 312.70

1 Associate professionals include technicians, nurses, police, firefighters, media/PR workers, train drivers, legal and finance workers and sales reps. 2 Services means personal service occupations such as care workers, travel assistants, hairdressers, caretakers. 3 Other manual jobs refers to "elementary" occupations including farm workers, labourers, dockers, postal workers, porters, waiters, cleaners.

Source: New Earnings Survey April 2003 (uprated)