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Real average weekly earnings up 0.9 percent over year ending October 2019, 6.9 percent since 2009

November 20, 2019

Real average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased 1.2 percent from October 2018 to October 2019. The increase in real average hourly earnings and a 0.3-percent decrease in the average workweek resulted in a 0.9-percent increase in real average weekly earnings over the 12 months ending in October 2019.

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Percent change in consumer prices and in earnings for employees on private nonfarm payrolls, October 2018 to October 2019
Measure	All employees	Production and nonsupervisory employees
Average hourly earnings	3.0%	3.5%
Average weekly earnings	2.7	3.2
Consumer Price Index^[1]	1.8	1.6
Real average hourly earnings	1.2	1.9
Real average weekly earnings	0.9	1.6
^[1] The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers is used to adjust earnings for inflation for all employees. The Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers is used to adjust earnings for production and nonsupervisory employees.

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Real average hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory employees increased 1.9 percent from October 2018 to October 2019. Real average weekly earnings for these workers rose 1.6 percent over the year.

From the beginning of 2009 to October 2019, real average hourly earnings for all employees rose 5.6 percent and real average weekly earnings rose 6.9 percent. For production and nonsupervisory employees, real average hourly earnings rose 6.1 percent and real average weekly earnings rose 7.3 percent during that period.

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Indexes of real hourly and weekly earnings for employees on private nonfarm payrolls
Month	All employees, average weekly earnings	All employees, average hourly earnings	Production and nonsupervisory employees, average weekly earnings	Production and nonsupervisory employees, average hourly earnings
Jan 2009	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
Feb 2009	99.7	99.7	100.2	99.9
Mar 2009	99.6	100.1	100.0	100.3
Apr 2009	99.6	100.2	99.9	100.2
May 2009	99.5	100.1	99.5	100.1
Jun 2009	98.6	99.4	98.6	99.2
Jul 2009	99.1	99.6	99.1	99.3
Aug 2009	98.9	99.5	99.1	99.4
Sep 2009	99.2	99.4	99.0	99.3
Oct 2009	98.8	99.3	98.6	99.2
Nov 2009	99.0	99.2	99.2	99.2
Dec 2009	98.9	99.2	99.2	99.2
Jan 2010	99.7	99.4	99.7	99.3
Feb 2010	99.1	99.6	99.3	99.7
Mar 2010	99.7	99.6	99.9	99.6
Apr 2010	100.1	99.7	100.4	99.8
May 2010	100.3	100.0	100.7	100.1
Jun 2010	100.4	100.0	100.6	100.2
Jul 2010	100.4	100.1	100.7	100.1
Aug 2010	100.7	100.1	101.2	100.3
Sep 2010	101.1	100.2	101.0	100.1
Oct 2010	101.0	100.1	101.4	100.2
Nov 2010	100.4	99.8	100.9	100.0
Dec 2010	100.5	99.5	100.5	99.6
Jan 2011	100.2	99.6	100.3	99.7
Feb 2011	100.3	99.4	100.2	99.3
Mar 2011	99.8	98.9	99.6	98.8
Apr 2011	99.8	98.6	99.6	98.4
May 2011	99.5	98.6	99.5	98.3
Jun 2011	99.6	98.7	99.6	98.4
Jul 2011	100.1	98.8	99.9	98.4
Aug 2011	99.3	98.4	99.0	98.1
Sep 2011	99.5	98.4	99.1	98.0
Oct 2011	99.9	98.7	99.7	98.2
Nov 2011	99.6	98.5	99.2	98.0
Dec 2011	99.7	98.5	99.5	98.1
Jan 2012	99.8	98.4	99.7	97.9
Feb 2012	99.8	98.4	99.1	97.6
Mar 2012	99.6	98.5	99.2	97.8
Apr 2012	99.9	98.5	99.2	97.8
May 2012	99.9	98.6	99.2	98.0
Jun 2012	100.2	99.0	99.8	98.3
Jul 2012	100.4	99.2	100.0	98.5
Aug 2012	99.8	98.6	99.0	97.9
Sep 2012	99.6	98.5	99.0	97.5
Oct 2012	99.3	98.1	98.4	97.2
Nov 2012	99.7	98.6	99.2	97.8
Dec 2012	100.5	98.9	99.8	98.1
Jan 2013	100.1	98.9	99.3	98.1
Feb 2013	99.9	98.5	99.5	97.8
Mar 2013	100.3	98.8	100.0	98.2
Apr 2013	100.5	99.3	100.1	98.7
May 2013	100.9	99.4	100.1	98.7
Jun 2013	100.9	99.4	100.2	98.7
Jul 2013	100.5	99.3	99.5	98.7
Aug 2013	100.8	99.2	99.7	98.5
Sep 2013	100.5	99.3	100.3	98.8
Oct 2013	100.6	99.4	100.0	98.9
Nov 2013	101.0	99.5	100.4	99.0
Dec 2013	100.5	99.3	100.0	98.8
Jan 2014	100.4	99.2	99.7	98.9
Feb 2014	100.5	99.5	99.8	99.2
Mar 2014	100.8	99.3	100.4	99.0
Apr 2014	100.8	99.2	100.4	98.9
May 2014	100.8	99.3	100.4	99.0
Jun 2014	100.8	99.3	100.4	98.9
Jul 2014	100.9	99.4	100.5	99.0
Aug 2014	101.5	99.7	100.9	99.3
Sep 2014	101.2	99.7	100.9	99.4
Oct 2014	101.6	99.8	101.2	99.7
Nov 2014	102.1	100.3	102.0	100.2
Dec 2014	102.4	100.6	102.3	100.4
Jan 2015	103.2	101.6	103.3	101.8
Feb 2015	103.5	101.6	103.2	101.7
Mar 2015	103.1	101.5	103.0	101.5
Apr 2015	103.2	101.6	102.8	101.6
May 2015	103.1	101.6	102.8	101.6
Jun 2015	102.9	101.4	102.8	101.3
Jul 2015	102.8	101.4	102.8	101.2
Aug 2015	103.5	101.6	103.1	101.6
Sep 2015	103.5	102.0	103.3	102.1
Oct 2015	104.0	102.2	104.0	102.5
Nov 2015	103.8	102.3	103.9	102.4
Dec 2015	104.0	102.4	104.5	102.7
Jan 2016	104.7	102.9	104.6	103.0
Feb 2016	104.4	103.1	104.8	103.6
Mar 2016	104.4	103.2	104.7	103.5
Apr 2016	104.4	103.1	104.6	103.4
May 2016	104.2	103.0	104.4	103.3
Jun 2016	104.2	103.0	104.3	103.1
Jul 2016	104.4	103.2	104.7	103.4
Aug 2016	104.1	103.1	104.6	103.4
Sep 2016	104.4	103.1	104.5	103.3
Oct 2016	104.5	103.2	104.6	103.4
Nov 2016	104.2	103.3	104.6	103.4
Dec 2016	104.2	103.0	104.1	103.1
Jan 2017	104.0	102.8	104.2	102.9
Feb 2017	104.0	103.1	104.3	103.1
Mar 2017	104.2	103.3	104.3	103.4
Apr 2017	104.7	103.4	105.0	103.5
May 2017	104.9	103.7	105.0	103.7
Jun 2017	105.0	103.8	105.5	103.9
Jul 2017	105.3	104.1	105.6	104.0
Aug 2017	105.0	103.8	105.0	103.7
Sep 2017	104.7	103.8	104.8	103.6
Oct 2017	104.8	103.5	105.1	103.5
Nov 2017	105.1	103.5	105.0	103.4
Dec 2017	105.2	103.7	105.3	103.5
Jan 2018	104.7	103.5	104.5	103.3
Feb 2018	105.0	103.5	105.1	103.3
Mar 2018	105.3	103.8	105.2	103.6
Apr 2018	105.3	103.8	105.6	103.7
May 2018	105.4	103.9	105.6	103.7
Jun 2018	105.4	103.9	105.6	103.7
Jul 2018	105.5	104.0	105.6	103.7
Aug 2018	105.8	104.2	105.9	104.0
Sep 2018	106.0	104.4	105.8	104.3
Oct 2018	105.9	104.3	105.7	104.0
Nov 2018	105.9	104.6	106.2	104.6
Dec 2018	106.6	105.0	106.8	105.2
Jan 2019	106.8	105.2	107.3	105.4
Feb 2019	106.7	105.4	106.7	105.4
Mar 2019	106.7	105.1	106.9	105.3
Apr 2019	106.2	104.9	106.4	105.2
May 2019	106.4	105.1	106.7	105.5
Jun 2019	106.7	105.4	106.9	105.7
Jul 2019	106.3	105.4	106.6	105.6
Aug 2019	107.0	105.8	107.3	106.1
Sep 2019^[p]	107.1	105.8	107.6	106.3
Oct 2019^[p]	106.9	105.6	107.3	106.1
^[p] Preliminary

These data are from the Current Employment Statistics program and are seasonally adjusted. Data for the most recent 2 months are preliminary. To learn more, see "Real Earnings — October 2019." The Consumer Price Index is used to adjust earnings estimates for inflation.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Real average weekly earnings up 0.9 percent over year ending October 2019, 6.9 percent since 2009 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2019/real-average-weekly-earnings-up-0-9-percent-over-year-ending-october-2019-6-9-percent-since-2009.htm (visited October 31, 2024).

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