Real earnings for workers have declined 12 percent since 1979.

Without the change, earnings for the year would have declined 3 percent, to $2.8 billion, or $7.51 a share.

As a result, earnings have been declining for several years.

Earnings of younger families under 30 have declined 42 percent in the last 15 years.

The company said last month that its earnings declined 16.4 percent in the second quarter.

Revenue for the year was a record, but 1989 earnings declined from last year's level.

Earnings declined 91 percent in 1995, to $11 million from the previous year, on revenue of $7.1 billion.

The company reported that earnings declined 56 percent, to $74 million in the first quarter, compared with the year before.

But for the full year, Shell's earnings declined 26.2 percent from 1989's results.

But on Tuesday, the company broke the bad news that those earnings would decline.

Mobil reported an earnings decline of 38.5 percent.

When Verizon closed the books last year, it reported an earnings decline of 5.5 percent.

AT&T Wireless is expected to have an earnings decline of 67 percent in the third quarter.

The company said the primary causes of its earnings decline were unusual and non-recurring.

The average earnings decline of three quarters or more was 11.3 percent.

Telerate's role in the earnings decline has attracted the attention of Wall Street analysts.

Last year's earnings decline of 15 percent ended 25 straight years of steadily rising profits, and sent the stock down nearly a third.

But back then, the overall earnings decline lasted two years.

The earnings decline was larger than analysts had expected.

The earnings decline came despite a 2.7 percent increase in sales, to $10.03 billion, from $9.76 billion.