Second Quarter 2002 Wages and Employment (Discontinued) — 2003-01-07

The average weekly wages of all workers covered by state and federal unemployment insurance (UI) programs was $687 in the second quarter of 2002, an increase of 1.7 percent from the same quarter in 2001, according to preliminary data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor. The over-the-year percent changes in average weekly wages for the last four quarters reported were below the levels for previous years. Quarterly employment and wage data are compiled from reports submitted by employers subject to state and federal unemployment insurance (UI) laws, covering 129.7 million full- and part-time jobs. Average weekly wages are computed by dividing total quarterly payrolls of employees covered by UI programs by the average monthly number of these employees and dividing by 13, for the 13 weeks in the quarter.