Transmission of material in this release is embargoed until USDL-09-1125

8:30 a.m. (EDT), Wednesday, September 16, 2009 

Technical Information: (202) 691-6555 • cesinfo@bls.gov • www.bls.gov/ces 

Media Contact: (202) 691-5902 • PressOffice@bls.gov 

REAL EARNINGS – AUGUST 2009 

Real average hourly earnings fell 0.2 percent from July to August, seasonally adjusted, the Bureau of 

Labor Statistics reported today. See chart 1. This decline stemmed from the Consumer Price Index for 

Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), up by 0.6 percent, outpacing 0.3 percent growth in 

average hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory workers. 

Real average weekly earnings fell 0.2 percent over the month, as a result of the decrease in real average 

hourly earnings and no change in the average work week. Since reaching a recent high point in 

December 2008, real average weekly earnings have fallen by 1.5 percent. 

Chart 1: Over-the-month percentage change in real average hourly earnings, seasonally adjusted, August 

2008 – August 2009 

0.5

0.1

1.5 1.3

-0 .1

-0.3

0.3

0.1 0.2

-0 .2

2.5

0.0

-0.9

-2.0

-1.0

0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

A u g '0 8 S e p '0 8 O c t'0 8 N o v'0 8 D e c '0 8 Ja n '0 9 F e b '0 9 M a r '0 9 A p r '0 9 M a y'0 9 J u n '0 9 Ju l'0 9 A u g '0 9

Real average hourly earnings grew 4.5 percent, seasonally adjusted, from August 2008 to August 2009. 

A 1.8 percent decline in average weekly hours partly offset the increase in real average hourly earnings 

and resulted in a 2.7 percent increase in real average weekly earnings during this period. 

Real Earnings for September 2009 is scheduled to be released on Thursday, October 15, 2009 at 

8:30 a.m. (EDT).
Table A. Composition of change in real earnings of production and

nonsupervisory workers1 on private nonfarm payrolls

Year

and

month

Percent change from preceding month, seasonally adjusted

Average

hourly

earnings

Average

weekly

hours

Average

weekly

earnings

The

Consumer

Price

Index2

Real

average

weekly

earnings

2008:

Aug. 0.4 0.3 0.7 0.0 0.8

Sept. .2 -.3 -.1 .0 -.2

Oct. .4 -.3 .1 -1.0 1.1

Nov. .3 -.3 (

3) -2.1 2.2

Dec. .3 -.3 (

3) -1.0 1.0

2009:

Jan. .2 .0 .2 .3 -.2

Feb. .2 .0 .2 .4 -.3

Mar. .2 -.6 -.4 -.1 -.2

Apr. .0 .0 .0 .0 (

3)

May .2 .0 .2 .1 (

3)

June .1 -.3 -.2 .9 -1.2

July p.3 .3 .6 .0 .5

Aug. p.3 .0 .3 .6 -.2

1 See footnote 2, table 1. Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). 

2 The deflator for the constant-dollar 3 Change less than 0.05 percent in 

series presented in this release is the magnitude.

Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage p = preliminary.

Table B. Percent change in earnings from the same month a year ago for

production and nonsupervisory workers1 on private nonfarm payrolls,

seasonally adjusted

Year

and

month

Average hourly

earnings

Current

dollars

Constant

(1982) dollars2

Average weekly

earnings

Current

dollars

Constant

(1982) dollars2

2008:

Aug. 3.8 -1.9 3.5 -2.2

Sept. 3.6 -1.7 3.0 -2.3

Oct. 3.9 -.1 2.9 -.9

Nov. 3.9 3.3 2.6 2.0

Dec. 3.9 4.6 2.4 3.1

2009:

Jan. 3.7 4.5 2.5 3.2

Feb. 3.5 4.0 2.0 2.5

Mar. 3.4 4.3 1.2 2.2

Apr. 3.1 4.3 1.0 2.2

May 3.0 4.6 1.2 2.8

June 2.8 4.5 .9 2.7

July p 2.7 5.3 1.2 3.7

Aug. p 2.6 4.5 .8 2.7

1 See footnote 2, table 1. Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). 

2 The deflator for the constant-dollar 3 Change less than 0.05 percent in 

series presented in this release is the magnitude.

Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage p = preliminary.
Table 1. Earnings of production and nonsupervisory workers on private nonfarm payrolls in current and constant

dollars1 by industry and selected industry detail, not seasonally adjusted

Industry

Average hourly earnings Average weekly earnings

Aug.

2008

July

2009p

Aug.

2009p

Percent

change:

Aug. 2008-

Aug. 2009

Aug.

2008

July

2009p

Aug.

2009p

Percent

change:

Aug. 2008-

Aug. 2009

Total private: 2

Current dollars ......................... $18.10 $18.48 $18.58 2.7 $613.59 $613.54 $624.29 1.7

Constant (1982) dollars .......... 8.15 8.51 8.53 4.7 276.23 282.40 286.49 3.7

Goods-producing:

Current dollars ......................... 19.53 19.96 20.01 2.5 794.87 788.42 796.40 .2

Constant (1982) dollars .......... 8.79 9.19 9.18 4.4 357.84 362.89 365.47 2.1

Mining and logging:

Current dollars ......................... 23.06 23.06 23.22 .7 1,051.54 986.97 1,019.36 -3.1

Constant (1982) dollars .......... 10.38 10.61 10.66 2.7 473.38 454.28 467.79 -1.2

Construction:

Current dollars ......................... 22.16 22.65 22.75 2.7 875.32 878.82 884.98 1.1

Constant (1982) dollars .......... 9.98 10.43 10.44 4.6 394.05 404.50 406.12 3.1

Manufacturing:

Current dollars ......................... 17.75 18.18 18.22 2.6 727.75 719.93 730.62 .4

Constant (1982) dollars .......... 7.99 8.37 8.36 4.6 327.62 331.37 335.28 2.3

Private service-providing:

Current dollars ......................... 17.73 18.16 18.27 3.0 576.23 582.94 593.78 3.0

Constant (1982) dollars .......... 7.98 8.36 8.38 5.0 259.41 268.31 272.49 5.0

Trade, transportation, and utilities:

Current dollars ......................... 16.21 16.39 16.56 2.2 541.41 542.51 551.45 1.9

Constant (1982) dollars .......... 7.30 7.54 7.60 4.1 243.73 249.70 253.06 3.8

Wholesale trade:

Current dollars ......................... 20.23 20.84 21.05 4.1 774.81 779.42 799.90 3.2

Constant (1982) dollars .......... 9.11 9.59 9.66 6.0 348.80 358.75 367.08 5.2

Retail trade:

Current dollars ......................... 12.93 12.99 13.10 1.3 391.78 393.60 395.62 1.0

Constant (1982) dollars .......... 5.82 5.98 6.01 3.3 176.37 181.16 181.55 2.9

Transportation and

 warehousing:

Current dollars ......................... 18.52 18.64 18.75 1.2 679.68 678.50 691.88 1.8

Constant (1982) dollars .......... 8.34 8.58 8.60 3.1 305.98 312.30 317.51 3.8

Utilities:

Current dollars ......................... 28.64 29.39 29.61 3.4 1,205.74 1,222.62 1,237.70 2.7

Constant (1982) dollars .......... 12.89 13.53 13.59 5.4 542.80 562.74 567.98 4.6

Information:

Current dollars ......................... 24.87 25.31 25.51 2.6 917.70 921.28 938.77 2.3

Constant (1982) dollars .......... 11.20 11.65 11.71 4.6 413.13 424.04 430.80 4.3

Financial activities:

Current dollars ......................... 20.29 20.66 20.77 2.4 726.38 737.56 762.26 4.9

Constant (1982) dollars .......... 9.13 9.51 9.53 4.4 327.00 339.48 349.80 7.0

Professional and business

 services:

Current dollars ......................... 21.12 22.24 22.40 6.1 739.20 767.28 792.96 7.3

Constant (1982) dollars .......... 9.51 10.24 10.28 8.1 332.77 353.16 363.89 9.4

Education and health services:

Current dollars ......................... 18.95 19.47 19.42 2.5 617.77 628.88 631.15 2.2

Constant (1982) dollars .......... 8.53 8.96 8.91 4.5 278.11 289.46 289.64 4.1

Leisure and hospitality:

Current dollars ......................... 10.79 10.95 11.01 2.0 278.38 277.04 282.96 1.6

Constant (1982) dollars .......... 4.86 5.04 5.05 3.9 125.32 127.51 129.85 3.6

Other services:

Current dollars ......................... 16.10 16.16 16.24 .9 500.71 492.88 501.82 .2

Constant (1982) dollars .......... 7.25 7.44 7.45 2.8 225.41 226.86 230.29 2.2

1

The deflator for the constant-dollar series presented in this release and manufacturing, construction workers in construction, and nonsupervisory

is the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical workers in the service-providing industries. These groups account for 

Workers (CPI-W). approximately four-fifths of the total employment on private nonfarm payrolls.

2 Data relate to production workers in mining and logging p

= preliminary.
Table 2. Earnings of production and nonsupervisory workers1

 on private nonfarm

payrolls, seasonally adjusted

Year

and

month

Average hourly

earnings

Current

dollars

Constant

(1982) dollars2

Average weekly

earnings

Current

dollars

Constant

(1982) dollars2

2008:

Aug. $18.18 $8.20 $612.67 $276.47

Sept. 18.21 8.21 611.86 275.99

Oct. 18.28 8.33 612.38 279.11

Nov. 18.34 8.54 612.56 285.23

Dec. 18.40 8.65 612.72 288.12

2009:

Jan. 18.43 8.64 613.72 287.60

Feb. 18.46 8.61 614.72 286.80

Mar. 18.50 8.64 612.35 286.10

Apr. 18.50 8.65 612.35 286.16

May 18.53 8.65 613.34 286.25

June 18.54 8.57 611.82 282.94

July p 18.59 8.59 615.33 284.48

Aug. p 18.65 8.57 617.32 283.83

1

 See footnote 2, table 1. Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and

2 The deflator for the constant-dollar series Clerical Workers (CPI-W). 

presented in this release is the Consumer p = preliminary.
Explanatory Note 

The earnings series presented in this release 

are derived from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 

Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey, a 

monthly establishment survey of employment, payroll, 

and hours. The deflator used for constant-dollar 

earnings series presented in this release is derived from 

the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and 

Clerical Workers (CPI-W). 

 For the purpose of the Real Earnings series, 

the CPI-W is converted from the base of 1982-84 that 

is used in the official, published series to a base of 

1982. Thus, the constant dollar average hourly and 

weekly earnings series are in 1982 dollars. To avoid 

confusion for users, the CPI data presented in Table A 

are the official, published CPI-W series. These data 

may differ slightly from those used in the real earnings 

calculations. 

 Seasonally adjusted data are used for 

estimates of percent change from the same month a 

year ago for current and constant average hourly and 

weekly earnings that are presented in Table B of this 

release. Special techniques are applied to the CES 

hours and earnings data in the seasonal adjustment 

process to mitigate the effect of certain calendarrelated fluctuations. Thus, over-the-year changes of 

these hours and earnings are best measured using 

seasonally adjusted series. A discussion of the 

calendar-related fluctuations in the hours and earnings 

data and the special techniques to remove them is 

available in the February 2004 issue of Employment 

and Earnings or on the Internet under ‘Technical 

Notes’ (http://www.bls.gov/ces/). 

 Earnings series from the monthly 

establishment series are estimated arithmetic averages 

(means) of the hourly and weekly earnings of all 

production and nonsupervisory jobs in the private 

nonfarm sector of the economy. Average hourly 

earnings estimates are derived by dividing the 

estimated industry payroll--for all production and 

nonsupervisory jobs--by the corresponding paid hours. 

Average weekly hours estimates are similarly derived 

by dividing estimated aggregate hours by the 

corresponding number of production and 

nonsupervisory jobs. Average weekly earnings 

estimates are derived by multiplying the average 

hourly earnings and the average weekly hours 

estimates. This is equivalent to dividing the estimated 

payroll by the number of production and 

nonsupervisory jobs. The weekly and hourly earnings 

estimates for aggregate industries, such as the major 

industry division and the total private 

sector averages printed in this release, are derived by 

summing the corresponding payroll, hours, and 

employment estimates of the component industries. 

As a result, each industry receives a "weight" in the 

published averages that corresponds to its current level 

of activity (employment or total hours). This further 

implies that fluctuations and varying trends in 

employment in high-wage versus low-wage industries 

as well as wage rate changes influence the earnings 

averages. 

 There are several characteristics of the series 

presented in this release that limit their suitability for 

some types of economic analyses. (1) The denominator 

for the weekly earnings series is the number of private 

nonfarm production and nonsupervisory worker jobs. 

This number includes full-time and part-time jobs as 

well as the jobs held by multiple jobholders in the 

private nonfarm sector. These factors tend to result in 

weekly earnings averages significantly lower than the 

corresponding numbers for full-time jobs. (2) Annual 

earnings averages can differ significantly from the 

result obtained by multiplying average weekly 

earnings times 52 weeks. The difference may be due 

to factors such as turnovers and layoffs. (3) The series 

are the average earnings of all production and 

nonsupervisory jobs, not the earnings average of 

"typical" jobs or jobs held by "typical" workers. 

Specifically, there are no adjustments for occupational, 

age, or schooling variations or for household type or 

location. Many studies have established the 

significance of these factors and that their impact 

varies over time. 

 Seasonally adjusted data (table 2) are 

preferred by some users for analyzing general earnings 

trends in the economy since they eliminate the effect of 

changes that normally occur at the same time and in 

about the same magnitude each year and, therefore, 

reveal the underlying trends and cyclical movements. 

Changes in average earnings may be due to seasonal 

changes in the proportion of workers in high-wage and 

low-wage industries or occupations or to seasonal 

changes in the amount of overtime work, and so on. 

 For more information, see Thomas Gavett, 

"Measures of Change in Real Wages and Earnings," 

Monthly Labor Review, February 1972. 

 Information in this release will be made 

available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. 

Voice phone: 202-691-5200; TDD Message Referral 

Phone Number: 1-800-877-8339.