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Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE)
Background
The New Earnings Survey (NES) was published in 2003 for the last time. Following recommendations made in the National Statistics Quality Review of Earnings Statistics, a new survey has been developed: the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE). ASHE results were published for the first time in October 2004. The latest 2004 results together with a back series to 1998 can be downloaded from the main National Statistics site using the link below.
The ASHE data replace the previously published NES figures. The ASHE survey includes improved coverage of employees and weighting of earnings estimates. The data variables collected remain broadly the same, although an improved questionnaire will be introduced for the 2005 survey. Details about the survey and methodology are included in a Labour Market Trends article available from the following link:
Methodology for the 2004 Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (link)
Earnings data on Nomis
The change in methodology will mean that statistics on pay and hours published from ASHE will be discontinuous with and replace the previous NES surveys. Consequently, the NES data sets have been removed from Nomis. Earnings data remains available in the Nomis local authority profiles with ASHE results replacing the NES figures, but the full ASHE data sets will not be available through Nomis wizard/advanced queries till late 2005.
Because of the new suppression criteria, it will not be possible to publish ASHE data on Nomis in the same format as NES data. At present Nomis users can specify their own dimensions (e.g. occupations, geographies, variable). This requires data to be stored in such a way that is can be used additively to calculate estimates for aggregate dimensions.
The introduction of new suppression rules do not allow storage of data in this way. Only the ASHE outputs as released on the ONS website will be available through Nomis i.e. summary tables by occupation, region, industry, age group and local authority. Some analyses, such as occupation breakdowns at local authorities level, will no longer be available, and users will not be able to add together dimensions (eg create user-defined geographies, occupations).