September 18, 2012 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Real earnings in August 2012
Real average hourly earnings for all employees fell 0.7 percent from July to August, seasonally adjusted. This decline resulted from unchanged average hourly earnings combined with a 0.6-percent increase in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U).
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Real average weekly earnings fell 0.6 percent in August, resulting from the decline in real average hourly earnings combined with an unchanged average workweek. Since reaching a peak in October 2010, real average weekly earnings have fallen 1.3 percent.
Over the year (August 2011 to August 2012), real average hourly earnings were unchanged, seasonally adjusted. The unchanged real average hourly earnings combined with a 0.3-percent increase in the average workweek resulted in a 0.3-percent increase in real average weekly earnings over this period.
These earnings data are from the Current Employment Statistics program. Earnings data for July and August are preliminary and subject to revision. To learn more, see "Real Earnings — August 2012" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-12-1835. The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers from the Consumer Price Indexes program is used to deflate the all employees earnings data.
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