Key economic indicators

Earnings and pay

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

August 2005 (r) 4.1 4.3 4.2 4.1 4.3 3.0

September (r) 3.8 4.5 3.6 3.8 4.0 3.0

October 3.2 4.5 2.9 3.0 4.0 3.0

November 3.5 4.4 3.4 3.2 4.4 3.0

December 4.2 4.4 3.9 3.9 4.7 3.2

January 2006 3.0 5.0 2.8 2.9 4.1 3.0

February 5.0 5.2 5.1 5.3 4.1 3.0

March 4.4 4.8 4.4 4.4 4.3 3.0

April 3.5 5.9 3.2 3.7 2.9 3.0

May 4.4 5.7 4.2 4.7 3.7 3.0

June 4.9 5.9 4.8 5.3 3.7 3.0

July 3.9 4.8 3.8 3.8 4.1 3.0

August (r) 3.8 5.3 3.7 3.9 3.1 3.0

September (p) 4.1 5.5 4.1 4.2 3.3 3.0

Headline rate for September** 3.9 5.2 3.9 4.0 3.5

All columns except "LRD pay deals" show annual percentage rises in average weekly earnings in Great Britain, seasonally adjusted, as monitored by National Statistics.

* The midpoint percentage increase in minimum basic pay among pay settlements reached in 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 in RPI Annual increase in consumer prices index

June 2005 192.2 2.9 2.0

July 192.2 2.9 2.3

August 192.6 2.8 2.4

September 193.1 2.7 2.5

October 193.3 2.5 2.3

November 193.6 2.4 2.1

December 194.1 2.2 1.9

January 2006 193.4 2.4 1.9

February 194.2 2.4 2.0

March 195.0 2.4 1.8

April 196.5 2.6 2.0

May 197.7 3.0 2.2

June 198.5 3.3 2.5

July 198.5 3.3 2.4

August 199.2 3.4 2.5

September 200.1 3.6 2.4

October 200.4 3.7 2.4

* January 1987 = 100

Source: National Statistics

Full-time average weekly earnings by occupation

All workers 548.00

All male 602.80

All female 462.70

Managers 826.90

Professionals 744.00

Associate professionals* 565.90

Admin & secretarial 363.50

Skilled/craft 457.10

Services** 320.00

Sales 303.30

Operatives 421.30

Other manual jobs*** 327.20

* 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.

Source: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2006 (uprated)