Real earnings in January 2012

Real average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls were unchanged from December 2011 to January 2012, seasonally adjusted. A 0.2-percent increase in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) offset a 0.2-percent increase in the average hourly earnings.

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Real average weekly earnings were unchanged over the month, as a result of both the real average hourly earnings and the average workweek remaining unchanged. Real average weekly earnings in January 2012 were 0.9 percent below their October 2010 peak.

Real average hourly earnings were 1.0 percent lower in January 2012 than a year earlier on a seasonally adjusted basis. A 0.6-percent increase in the average workweek, combined with the decline in real average hourly earnings, resulted in a 0.4-percent decrease in real average weekly earnings over the year.

These earnings data are from the Current Employment Statistics program. Earnings data for December and January are preliminary and subject to revision. To learn more, see "Real Earnings — January 2012" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-12-0268.