Key economic indicators

Earnings and pay

% annual rise Whole economy (1) Manufacturing (1) Services (1) Private sector (1) Public sector (1) LRD average pay deals (2) 2003

March 4.2 6.6 3.9 3.9 5.1 3.0

April 2.6 2.6 2.6 2.0 5.1 3.2

May 3.1 3.2 3.3 2.8 4.6 3.2

June 3.2 3.0 3.3 2.6 5.4 3.2

July 3.6 3.2 3.9 3.2 5.3 3.2

August 3.5 2.9 3.8 2.9 6.0 3.1

September 3.7 3.5 3.9 3.2 5.5 3.0

October 3.6 3.2 3.8 3.4 4.7 3.2

November 3.3 3.5 3.2 3.1 4.2 3.3

December 3.4 3.4 3.3 3.1 4.3 3.2

2004

January (r) 7.3 3.6 8.7 8.1 4.1 3.1

February (r) 3.9 3.6 3.7 3.9 4.4 3.0

March (p) 4.3 3.5 4.7 4.5 4.3 3.0

Headline rate for March3 5.2 3.5 5.7 5.5 4.3

1 Average weekly earnings in Great Britain, seasonally adjusted, as monitored by National Statistics. 2 The midpoint of pay settlements for the latest three months as monitored on the Labour Research Department's PayLine database. 3 The average of the earnings increase figures for the latest three months compared with a year earlier. (r) revised (p) provisional

Retail prices

Retail price index (Jan 1987=100) % annual increase % increase excluding mortgage payments 2003

March 179.9 3.1 1.6

April 181.2 3.1 1.5

May 181.5 3.0 1.2

June 181.3 2.9 1.1

July 181.3 3.1 1.3

August 181.6 2.9 1.4

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

Source: National Statistics

Full time average weekly earnings by occupation

£pw

All workers 498.20

All male 549.70

All female 414.60

Managers 782.60

Professionals 681.30

Associate professionals1 552.70

Admin & secretarial 354.30

Skilled/craft 431.80

Services2 296.20

Sales 302.50

Operatives 391.40

Other manual jobs3 320.40

1 Associate professionals include technicians, nurses, police, firefighters, media/PR workers, train drivers, legal and finance workers and sales reps. 2 Services means personal service occupations such as care workers, travel assistants, hairdressers, caretakers. 3 Other manual jobs refers to "elementary" occupations including farm workers, labourers, dockers, postal workers, porters, waiters, cleaners.

Source: New Earnings Survey April 2003 (uprated)