Key economic indicators

Earnings and pay

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

March 2004 (r) 5.3 3.3 5.2 5.5 4.5 3.0

April 4.5 4.7 4.3 4.6 4.1 3.0

May 4.1 4.3 3.7 4.0 4.6 3.0

June 4.1 4.1 4.0 4.0 4.5 3.0

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 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 (r) 4.0 3.1 4.0 3.9 4.7 3.5

February (r) 5.7 3.8 6.4 6.0 4.6 3.4

March (p) 4.0 3.4 4.5 4.0 4.2 3.3

Headline rate for March*** 4.6 3.4 4.9 4.6 4.5

* 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

March 2004 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

February 189.6 3.2 1.6

March 190.5 3.2 1.9

April 191.6 3.2 1.9

* Jan 1987 = 100

Source: National Statistics

Full-time average weekly earnings by occupation

£pw

All workers 529.10

All male 583.50

All female 440.40

Managers 792.50

Professionals 704.00

Associate professionals* 564.30

Admin & secretarial 363.90

Skilled/craft 445.50

Services** 303.50

Sales 305.40

Operatives 400.10

Other manual jobs*** 322.20

* 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.