Key economic indicators

Earnings and pay

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

June 2004 (r) 4.2 4.1 4.1 4.1 4.7 3.0

July 3.3 3.8 2.9 3.2 3.7 3.0

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 3.1

December 4.3 3.7 4.4 4.3 4.4 3.5

January 2005 4.0 3.1 4.0 3.9 4.7 3.4

February 5.7 3.7 6.3 5.9 4.6 3.3

March 3.9 3.3 4.4 3.9 4.3 3.4

April (r) 4.3 3.6 4.5 4.1 5.0 3.5

May (r) 4.1 1.9 4.6 3.3 7.6 3.5

June (p) 4.1 2.8 4.4 4.1 4.3 3.3

Headline rate for June*** 4.2 2.8 4.5 3.8 5.6

* % annual rise in 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) RPI annual increase Consumer prices index increase

May 2004 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% 1.15

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%

April 191.6 3.2% 1.9%

May 192.0 2.9% 1.9%

June 192.2 2.9% 2.0%

July 192.2 2.9% 2.3%

Source: National Statistics

Full-time average weekly earnings by occupation

£pw

All workers 528.60

All male 583.00

All female 439.90

Managers 791.70

Professionals 703.40

Associate professionals* 563.80

Admin & secretarial 363.50

Skilled/craft 445.10

Services** 303.20

Sales 305.10

Operatives 399.70

Other manual jobs*** 321.80

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

* 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.