Discover WS13|Lichfield

ASHE is a 1% sample of employee jobs from HMRC PAYE records, with a reference week in April. We hold the median gross pay of full-time employees, by place of residence (where the employee lives) and by place of work (where the job is), for the latest survey year and the years back to 2015. Median weekly pay is gross pay before tax for the pay period that includes the reference date; annual pay is gross annual pay for the year to April. Pay is in cash terms: it is not adjusted for inflation, so changes over time include price rises. Survey estimates have a margin of error that grows as areas get smaller; each value carries its coefficient of variation and values with a CV above 10% are marked low quality. Estimates ONS judges too unreliable (CV above about 40%) are not published and appear here as absent. Self-employed people are not covered. Residence-based figures describe people who live in the area wherever they work; workplace-based figures describe jobs located in the area wherever the employee lives. The two can differ a lot in commuter areas and city centres.

The claimant count is the number of people claiming benefit mainly for being unemployed: Jobseeker's Allowance plus those Universal Credit claimants who are required to look for work. It is not the same as unemployment as measured by surveys: it misses people who are out of work but do not claim and counts some who are working part-time but claim. Under Universal Credit, more people have to look for work than under the old system, so figures after 2013 are not comparable with earlier years. The rate is claimants as a share of residents aged 16 to 64. Figures are for the month shown and are revised slightly the following month; the latest revised month is used.

BRES is the official source of employee and employment estimates by detailed industry and area. Employment is employees plus working owners, counted at the place of work and in the survey week in September. It covers all sectors except small farm agriculture, and the self-employed who are not registered for PAYE or VAT. ONS rounds BRES employment and suppresses small cells, so industry sums may not add to the total. Jobs here are not residents: people may live elsewhere. Part-time and full-time jobs count equally (they are not full-time equivalents).

UK Business Counts count businesses registered for VAT and/or PAYE on the ONS Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) at a March snapshot. An enterprise is the smallest combination of legal units with a degree of autonomy; a local unit is a single site of an enterprise, counted where the site is. Businesses below the VAT threshold and not running PAYE (many sole traders) are not included, so counts understate the smallest businesses. Counts are rounded to the nearest 5. Enterprises are placed in an area by where their head office or main site is registered with HMRC, which for multi-site firms may not be where staff work: local units are the better guide to where businesses operate. Size bands are by employment (employees plus working proprietors). Industry is the SIC 2007 section of the main activity.

UK Business Counts count businesses registered for VAT and/or PAYE on the ONS Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) at a March snapshot. An enterprise is the smallest combination of legal units with a degree of autonomy; a local unit is a single site of an enterprise, counted where the site is. Businesses below the VAT threshold and not running PAYE (many sole traders) are not included, so counts understate the smallest businesses. Counts are rounded to the nearest 5. Enterprises are placed in an area by where their head office or main site is registered with HMRC, which for multi-site firms may not be where staff work: local units are the better guide to where businesses operate. Size bands are by employment (employees plus working proprietors). Industry is the SIC 2007 section of the main activity.

UK Business Counts count businesses registered for VAT and/or PAYE on the ONS Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) at a March snapshot. An enterprise is the smallest combination of legal units with a degree of autonomy; a local unit is a single site of an enterprise, counted where the site is. Businesses below the VAT threshold and not running PAYE (many sole traders) are not included, so counts understate the smallest businesses. Counts are rounded to the nearest 5. Enterprises are placed in an area by where their head office or main site is registered with HMRC, which for multi-site firms may not be where staff work: local units are the better guide to where businesses operate. Size bands are by employment (employees plus working proprietors). Industry is the SIC 2007 section of the main activity.

BRES is the official source of employee and employment estimates by detailed industry and area. Employment is employees plus working owners, counted at the place of work and in the survey week in September. It covers all sectors except small farm agriculture, and the self-employed who are not registered for PAYE or VAT. ONS rounds BRES employment and suppresses small cells, so industry sums may not add to the total. Jobs here are not residents: people may live elsewhere. Part-time and full-time jobs count equally (they are not full-time equivalents).

Companies are placed by the postcode of their REGISTERED OFFICE, which is not a trading or operating location: accountants, formation agents and virtual offices register thousands of companies at one address, and many small companies use a director's home. Counts are of companies with status Active (including those with a proposal to strike off), by the section of their first listed SIC 2007 code. Incorporation counts cover companies incorporated in the window that are still on the register at 2 Oct 2026, so dissolved companies are missing and older windows are understated relative to newer ones. Companies per 1,000 residents divides by the mid-2024 resident population (England and Wales only) and is not a measure of business density where registration hubs exist. SIC section Z groups dormant, non-trading and unclassified companies.

Counts of companies incorporated in a 12-month window, located by the postcode of their REGISTERED OFFICE, which is not where the company trades: accountants, formation agents and home addresses are common. The latest window is the 365 days ending the latest complete day (the day before the newest live-feed event); the prior window is the 365 days before it. Companies later dissolved are missing, so the prior window is understated relative to the latest and the percentage change is inflated by that survivorship effect. Monthly counts cover complete calendar months only.

Companies are placed by the postcode of their REGISTERED OFFICE, which is not a trading or operating location: accountants, formation agents and virtual offices register thousands of companies at one address, and many small companies use a director's home. Counts are of companies with status Active (including those with a proposal to strike off), by the section of their first listed SIC 2007 code. Incorporation counts cover companies incorporated in the window that are still on the register at 2 Oct 2026, so dissolved companies are missing and older windows are understated relative to newer ones. Companies per 1,000 residents divides by the mid-2024 resident population (England and Wales only) and is not a measure of business density where registration hubs exist. SIC section Z groups dormant, non-trading and unclassified companies.

Dissolutions are companies Companies House records as dissolved, counted on the dissolution date and located by the postcode of the registered office held at dissolution. That address is often an accountant, formation agent or liquidator, not where the company traded, so it says where a company was registered, not where a business closed. Every dissolution day since 1 January 2010 was fetched one day at a time and checked: the number of companies stored equals the number the register reports for that day. The latest window is the 365 days ending the latest complete day; the prior window is the 365 days before it; annual figures are complete calendar years. The route to dissolution (strike-off, end of liquidation, merger) is not recorded, so dissolutions are not split. Net formation = companies incorporated in the period (all that were ever registered in it, whether or not they have since been dissolved) minus companies dissolved in the period. The two groups are different companies and are located by different addresses, current for companies still on the register and last held for dissolved ones. Net formation compares registered offices, not jobs, trading or business closures.

Dissolutions are companies Companies House records as dissolved, counted on the dissolution date and located by the postcode of the registered office held at dissolution. That address is often an accountant, formation agent or liquidator, not where the company traded, so it says where a company was registered, not where a business closed. Every dissolution day since 1 January 2010 was fetched one day at a time and checked: the number of companies stored equals the number the register reports for that day. The latest window is the 365 days ending the latest complete day; the prior window is the 365 days before it; annual figures are complete calendar years. The route to dissolution (strike-off, end of liquidation, merger) is not recorded, so dissolutions are not split. Net formation = companies incorporated in the period (all that were ever registered in it, whether or not they have since been dissolved) minus companies dissolved in the period. The two groups are different companies and are located by different addresses, current for companies still on the register and last held for dissolved ones. Net formation compares registered offices, not jobs, trading or business closures.