asked the Secretary of State for Employment what was the
| Percentage increase in | |||
| average earnings | retail prices* | ||
| Period Whole economy index of average earnings (new series) | … | ||
| January 1976 to May 1978 | … | 29·3 | 32·3 |
| Production etc. industries† Index of average earnings (older series, seasonally adjusted) | … | ||
| October 1964 to June 1970 | … | 50·9 | 29·7 |
| June 1970 to February 1974 | … | 54·4‡ | 39·5 |
| February 1974 to May 1978 | … | 99·1‡ | 92·5 |
| Manufacturing and certain other industries§ Full-time manual men aged 21 and over | … | ||
| July 1945 to October 1951 | … | 36·7 | 26·3 |
| October 1951 to October 1964 | … | 118·2 | 50·8 |
| October 1964 to October 1970 | … | 54·9 | 32·5 |
| October 1970 to October 1973 | … | 45·9 | 29·7 |
| October 1973 to October 1977 | … | 78·1 | 92·9 |
| Information is available for only one or two months in each year. | |||
| * Based on the General Index of Retail Prices and its predecessors. | |||
| † Manufacturing, mining and quarrying, agriculture, construction, gas, electricity, water, transport and communication (except sea transport and postal services) and certain miscellaneous services. | |||
| ‡ Estimates discounting the effects of three-day week and other restrictions in February 1974. | |||
| § Mining (other than coal), quarrying, construction, gas, electricity, water, transport and communication (other than railways and sea transport), certain miscellaneous services, public administration. | |||
asked the Secretary of State for Employment whether he will publish statistics showing earnings in the major industries in North Staffordshire for each year from 1974 to the latest available date.
percentage increase in average monthly earnings—all employees—at constant prices between July 1945 and October 1951, between November 1951 and September 1964, between October 1964 and May 1970, between June 1970 and February 1974, and between March 1974 and the latest date for which figures are available.
I regret that the information asked for is not available on a consistent basis throughout the period 1945 to 1978. The monthly index of average earnings of employees covering the whole economy was only introduced from January 1976. The monthly index for production and a limited number of other industries was introduced from January 1963. The available information on movements in average earnings in the periods 1945 to 1951 and 1951 to 1964 relates to manual workers in manufacturing and certain other industries covered by twice yearly surveys by the Ministry of Labour which correspond to the survey now conducted by the Department of Employment each October.Estimated percentage increases in average earnings and retail prices in various periods based on these statistical sources are given below:
I regret that statistics of earnings are not available for areas smaller than the English and Welsh counties. The information given below is taken from the new earnings survey for 1974 to 1977. Table 1 gives estimates of average earnings in Staffordshire; table 2 gives estimates of average earnings by industry group in the West Midlands region for those industries
| TABLE 1 | |||||
| AVERAGE GROSS WEEKLY EARNINGS OF FULL-TIME MEN AND WOMEN (WHERE PAY WAS NOT AFFECTED BY ABSENCE) IN STAFFORDSHIRE: APRIL OF EACH YEAR | |||||
| 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | ||
| £ | £ | £ | £ | ||
| Manual men (aged 21 and over) | … | 43·30 | 55·20 | 63·90 | 70·30 |
| Non-manual men (aged 21 and over) | … | 50·30 | 61·50 | 73·80 | 82·70 |
| All men (aged 21 and over) | … | 45·40 | 57·20 | 67·30 | 74·50 |
| Manual women (aged 18 and over) | … | 22·60 | 31–50 | 38·10 | 44·00 |
| Non-manual women (aged 18 and over) | … | 26·80* | 36·40* | 47·40* | 50·00* |
| All women (aged 18 and over) | … | 24·80 | 34·30 | 43·90 | 47·50 |
| TABLE 2 | ||||||
| AVERAGE GROSS WEEKLY EARNINGS OF FULL-TIME MANUAL MEN (AGED 21 AND OVER AND WHERE PAY WAS NOT AFFECTED BY ABSENCES) BY INDUSTRY GROUP IN THE WEST MIDLANDS REGION: APRIL OF EACH YEAR | ||||||
| 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | |||
| £ | £ | £ | £ | |||
| Mining and quarrying | … | … | 51·30 | 72·80 | 78·40 | 83·20 |
| Food, drink and tobacco | … | … | 47·20 | 56·80 | 71·50 | 75·20 |
| Chemicals and allied industries | … | … | 41·60 | 52·70 | 65·20 | 70·70 |
| Metal manufacture | … | … | 47·70 | 58·70 | 69·40 | 77·00 |
| Mechanical engineering | … | … | 46·00 | 55·10 | 63·50 | 72·20 |
| Electrical engineering | … | … | 42·80 | 52·70 | 62·70 | 69·60 |
| Bricks, pottery, glass, cement, etc | … | … | 43·60 | 52·90 | 63·40 | 70·80 |
| Other manufacturing industries | … | … | 47·50 | 60·70 | 73·50 | 80·70 |
| Construction | … | … | 43·60 | 53·20 | 60·80 | 66·60 |
Note: Estimates are given to the nearest 10p and are subject to sampling error. Those marked* should be used with particular caution as they have relatively high sampling error.