Key economic indicators

Earnings and pay

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

December 2003 3.5 3.3 3.5 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 3.9 3.1 3.9 3.8 4.4 3.0

October (r) 4.2 3.4 4.3 4.1 4.8 3.0

November (r) 4.4 2.9 4.5 4.4 4.7 3.0

December (p) 4.4 3.8 4.5 4.4 4.4 3.0

Headline rate for December*** 4.3 3.4 4.4 4.3 4.7

* 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

December 2003 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

December 189.9 3.5 1.6

January 2005 188.9 3.2 1.6

* Jan 1987 = 100

Source: National Statistics

Full-time average weekly earnings by occupation

£pw

All workers 517.50

All male 570.70

All female 430.70

Managers 775.10

Professionals 688.60

Associate professionals* 552.00

Admin & secretarial 355.90

Skilled/craft 435.70

Services** 296.80

Sales 298.70

Operatives 391.30

Other manual jobs*** 315.10

* 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)