Labour Research May 2007

Key economic indicators

Key economic indicators

Earnings and pay

% annual rise LRD average pay deals*
Whole economy Manufacturing Services Private sector Public sector
February 2006 (r) 4.9 5.3 4.9 5.0 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 3.8 5.3 3.7 3.9 3.2 3.0
September 4.1 5.4 4.2 4.3 3.4 3.0
October 4.2 5.1 4.4 4.4 3.3 3.0
November 4.0 4.7 4.1 4.1 3.1 3.4
December 3.9 3.9 4.2 4.0 3.3 3.5
January 2007 (r) 4.7 3.4 5.1 5.1 3.3 3.6
February (p) 5.1 3.0 5.5 5.6 2.9 3.6
Headline rate for February** 4.6 3.4 5.0 4.9 3.2

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 (RPI)* RPI annual increase Consumer prices index annual increase
December 2005 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%
November 201.1 3.9% 2.7%
December 202.7 4.4% 3.0%
January 2007 201.6 4.2% 2.7%
February 203.1 4.6% 2.8%
March 198.3 4.8% 3.1%

*Jan 1987=100

Source: National Statistics

Full-time average weekly earnings by occupation

All workers £568.50
All male £625.30
All female £479.90
Managers £857.70
Professionals £771.70
Associate professionals* £587.00
Admin & secretarial £377.10
Skilled/craft £474.10
Services** £331.90
Sales £314.60
Operatives £437.00
Other manual jobs*** £339.40

* 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 and caretakers.

*** Other manual jobs are elementary occupations including farm workers, labourers, dockers, postal workers, porters, waiters and cleaners.

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