Total hours worked dipped, suggesting that production and income were leveling out, and hourly pay barely inched up.

Wages of private nonsupervisory workers - which account for some 80 percent of total employment - barely inched up to $15.65 an hour.

Alcohol was served in 3.5 percent of homes, barely inching ahead of coffee, at 3.4 percent.

The economy will barely inch along partly because corporations and individuals are still getting their financial houses in order.

Scott advanced towards the center of the room, his shuffling feet barely inching across the dirt floor.

Even those share prices - originally around $2,000 to $8,000 for an apartment - barely inched up in 30 years.

Connecticut's population barely inched up last year, growing by about 7,000, or two-tenths of 1 percent, to 3.27 million.

In a report issued last month, the Realtors' association said home prices in July barely inched up.

The rate for April, released last week, barely inched up, from 4.2 percent to 4.3 percent.

The Government's main forecasting gauge barely inched up in June, and its decline in May was slightly larger than had originally been estimated, the Commerce Department reported yesterday.