Key economic indicators

Earnings and pay

% annual rise Whole economy* Manufacturing* Services* Private sector* Public sector* LRD average pay deals** 2003

September (r) 3.7 3.5 3.8 3.2 5.5 3.0

October 3.6 3.2 3.8 3.4 4.7 3.2

November (r) 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

2004

January (r) 7.6 3.5 8.9 8.5 4.1 3.0

February (r) 3.9 3.5 3.7 3.8 4.4 3.0

March (r) 4.3 3.6 4.7 4.3 4.4 3.0

April (r) 4.5 4.7 4.3 4.6 4.1 3.1

May (r) 4.1 4.3 3.7 4.0 4.6 3.1

June (r) 4.1 4.1 4.0 4.0 4.5 3.1

July (r) 3.3 3.8 2.9 3.2 3.7 3.1

August (r) 4.1 3.3 4.0 4.0 4.5 3.0

September (p) 3.8 3.2 3.8 3.7 4.4 3.0

Headline rate for Sept*** 3.7 3.4 3.6 3.6 4.2

* 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 '87=100) % annual increase in RPI % annual increase in Consumer prices index 2003

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

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

Source: National Statistics

Full-time average weekly earnings by occupation

£pw

All workers 511.50

All male 564.00

All female 425.70

Managers 766.00

Professionals 680.50

Associate professionals* 545.50

Admin & secretarial 351.70

Skilled/craft 430.60

Services** 293.40

Sales 295.20

Operatives 386.80

Other manual jobs*** 311.40

* 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.