Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, 1997-2022: Secure Access

<p>The <i>Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings</i> (ASHE) is one of the largest surveys of the earnings of individuals in the UK. Data on the wages, paid hours of work, and pensions arrangements of nearly one per cent of the working population are collected. Other variables relating to age, occupation and industrial classification are also available. The ASHE sample is drawn from National Insurance records for working individuals, and the survey forms are sent to their respective employers to complete.<br> <br> While limited in terms of personal characteristics compared to surveys such as the <i>Labour Force Survey</i>, the ASHE is useful not only because of its larger sample size, but also the responses regarding wages and hours are considered to be more accurate, since the responses are provided by employers rather than from employees themselves. A further advantage of the ASHE is that data for the same individuals are collected year after year. It is therefore possible to construct a panel dataset of responses for each individual running back as far as 1997, and to track how occupations, earnings and working hours change for individuals over time. Furthermore, using the unique business identifiers, it is possible to combine ASHE data with data from other business surveys, such as the <i>Annual Business Survey</i> (UK Data Archive SN 7451).<br> <br> The ASHE replaced the <i>New Earnings Survey</i> (NES, SN 6704) in 2004. NES was developed in the 1970s in response to the policy needs of the time. The survey had changed very little in its thirty-year history. ASHE datasets for the years 1997-2003 were derived using ASHE methodologies applied to NES data.<br> <br> The ASHE improves on the NES in the following ways:</p><ul><li>the NES questionnaire allowed too much variation in employer responses, leading to wide variations in the data</li><li>weightings have been introduced to take account of the population size (significant biases were a known problem in NES data)</li><li>the significant numbers of employees who change jobs between the sample selection and survey reference dates are retained in the ASHE sample, whereas these were dropped from the NES</li></ul><i>Linking to other business studies</i><br> These data contain Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) reference numbers. These are anonymous but unique reference numbers assigned to business organisations. Their inclusion allows researchers to combine different business survey sources together. Researchers may consider applying for other business data to assist their research.<br> <br> <i>Observations from Northern Ireland</i><br> The ASHE data held by the UK Data Archive include very few observations from Northern Ireland. Users requiring access to Northern Ireland data are advised to contact the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, who administer this aspect of the survey.<br> <br> <i>Local unit reference variable, luref</i><br> The local unit reference variable 'luref', is generated to indicate multiple occurrences of the same local unit for disclosure checking purposes. It is inconsistent across years and is not an IDBR reference number. It should not be used to link ASHE with other business datasets.<p></p><p>For Secure Lab projects applying for access to this study as well as to SN 6697 <span style="font-style: italic;">Business Structure Database</span> and/or SN 7683<em> Business Structure Database Longitudinal</em>, only postcode-free versions of the data will be made available.<br><br><span style="font-style: italic;">Latest Edition Information</span><br>For the twenty-third edition (November 2023), a data file for 2020-2021 with pension variables has been added to the study, along with an accompanying data dictionary.</p>

<p>《年度工时与收入调查》（Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings，ASHE）是英国规模最大的个人收入调查之一。该调查收集了近1%劳动人口的工资、带薪工作时长及养老金安排数据，同时提供年龄、职业与行业分类等其他变量信息。ASHE样本源自劳动人口的国民保险（National Insurance）记录，调查表格由雇主填写并反馈。<br><br>尽管与《劳动力调查》（Labour Force Survey）等调查相比，ASHE在个人特征数据方面存在局限，但其价值不仅体现在样本量更大，更在于工资与工时数据由雇主而非雇员提供，因此被认为更为准确。ASHE的另一优势是对同一群体进行年度追踪调查，可构建回溯至1997年的个人面板数据集（panel dataset），从而分析个体职业、收入及工时的长期变化趋势。此外，借助唯一企业标识符，ASHE数据可与其他商业调查数据（如英国数据档案库SN 7451号《年度商业调查》）整合。<br><br>ASHE于2004年取代《新收入调查》（New Earnings Survey，NES，SN 6704）。NES诞生于20世纪70年代，旨在满足当时的政策需求，其三十年历史中几乎未发生变化。1997-2003年的ASHE数据集是通过将ASHE方法应用于NES数据而生成的。<br><br>ASHE在以下方面对NES进行了改进：</p><ul><li>NES问卷设计导致雇主反馈存在过多差异，进而造成数据波动较大；</li><li>引入权重调整以匹配人口规模（NES数据存在显著偏差是已知问题）；</li><li>样本选取至调查基准日期间更换工作的大量雇员在ASHE样本中被保留，而NES会剔除此类样本。</li></ul><b>与其他商业研究的关联</b><br>本数据集包含跨部门企业登记册（Inter-Departmental Business Register，IDBR）参考编号。这些编号为匿名但唯一的企业标识符，可支持研究者整合不同商业调查数据源。研究者可考虑申请其他商业数据以辅助研究。<br><br><b>北爱尔兰数据观测</b><br>英国数据档案库持有的ASHE数据中，北爱尔兰的观测样本极少。需要获取北爱尔兰数据的用户建议联系北爱尔兰统计与研究局（Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency），该局负责该调查的北爱尔兰相关部分。<br><br><b>地方单位参考变量 luref</b><br>地方单位参考变量“luref”是为披露检查目的而生成的，用于标识同一地方单位的多次出现。该变量跨年度不一致，且并非IDBR参考编号，不应用于将ASHE与其他商业数据集关联。<p></p><p>对于同时申请访问本研究及SN 6697号《企业结构数据库》（Business Structure Database）和/或SN 7683号《企业结构数据库 longitudinal》（Business Structure Database Longitudinal）的安全实验室项目，仅提供不含邮政编码的数据集版本。<br><br><b>最新版本信息</b><br>在2023年11月发布的第二十三版中，新增了包含养老金变量的2020-2021年数据文件及配套数据字典。</p>