by Laura Conaway

Falling earnings.
Enlarge Bureau of Labor Statistics

Falling hours help lead to falling earnings. Click to enlarge.

Falling earnings.
Bureau of Labor Statistics

Falling hours help lead to falling earnings. Click to enlarge.

It makes sense: People are working fewer hours — between layoffs, furloughs and the shrinking of overtime — and they're making less money. Today the Bureau of Labor Statistics charts the situation of smaller paychecks, with real average earnings declining by 0.4 percent from August to September. Urban and clerical workers managed earnings growth of 0.2 percent.

Weekly earnings peaked in December 2008 — and they've fallen by 1.9 percent since then.