Key economic indicators

Earnings and pay

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

November 03 3.2 3.6 2.9 2.9 4.2 3.3

December 3.4 3.3 3.4 3.2 4.3 3.3

January 04 7.6 3.5 8.9 8.5 4.1 3.0

February 3.9 3.5 3.7 3.8 4.4 3.0

March 4.3 3.6 4.7 4.3 4.4 3.0

April 4.5 4.7 4.3 4.6 4.1 3.1

May 4.1 4.3 3.7 4.0 4.6 3.1

June 4.1 4.1 4.0 4.0 4.5 3.1

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 (r) 3.9 3.1 3.9 3.8 4.4 3.0

October (r) 4.2 3.3 4.4 4.1 4.8 3.0

November (p) 4.5 2.9 4.5 4.4 5.0 3.0

Headline rate for November*** 4.2 3.1 4.3 4.1 4.7

* 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 % increase in Consumer prices index

November 03 182.7 2.5 1.3

December 183.5 2.8 1.3

January 04 183.1 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

November 189.0 3.4 1.5

December 189.9 3.5 1.6

* Jan 87 = 100

Source: National Statistics

Full-time average weekly earnings by occupation

£pw

All workers 516.50

All male 569.60

All female 429.90

Managers 773.60

Professionals 687.30

Associate professionals* 550.90

Admin & secretarial 355.20

Skilled/craft 434.90

Services** 296.30

Sales 298.10

Operatives 390.60

Other manual jobs*** 314.50

* 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 2004 (uprated)