Harrogate Borough Council
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Earnings
The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) provides
information about the levels, distribution and make-up of earnings
and hours worked for employees in all industries and
occupations. The ASHE is a new survey developed
to replace the New Earnings Survey (NES) from 2004 and includes
improvements to the collection of data relating to allowances and
incentive pay. Statistics for the ASHE have been
made available, for comparison purposes, back to 1998.
Comparison of Average Weekly Pay 1998 -
2005
Source: ASHE 1998-2005, NOMIS
As the above graph illustrates, the workplace earnings in the
Harrogate district are below those at country and regional level
and of neighbouring cities Leeds and York.
Earnings are above the county average due to an increase in
Harrogate district earnings in the last 12 months, which was not
seen at county level.
It should be noted that the ASHE does not take account of
different price levels between areas and therefore is not an
indication of standard of living. Neither do the
figures take account of the different mix of occupations in
different areas and therefore can not be used to claim that pay for
'like work' is different e.g. an area could have
a lower level of average earnings than another if it has a higher
proportion of employees in low paid sectors. In
relation to this point it can be noted that the five lowest paid
industry groups in the UK are Restaurants, Retail Sales of Food,
Bars, Hotels and Agriculture all of which are key employment
sectors within the Harrogate district.
It is also important to remember that the above figures are
based upon the ASHE workplace statistics and therefore will
illustrate the average earnings of people working in the Harrogate
District. What it does not capture is the
earnings of people who live in the Harrogate District but travel
outside of the District to work.
A residence based breakdown was recently released for the 2005
earnings data, which is illustrated in the graph below.
Comparison of Residents Earnings
2002-2005
In contrast to the workplace earnings, residence based
earnings in 2005 were higher in Harrogate district than both the
regional and county averages and those of Leeds.
However it does appear that residents earnings in Harrogate fell
slightly in the last twelve months, whereas they have continued to
rise in all other areas shown. This has meant that the Harrogate
average has fallen behind the national average and that of nearby
York, as it had been in 2003.
It will take further earnings data in 2006 to see whether this
trend is long term, or whether it is a 'blip' in the
figures. However, if there continues to be a
fall in residence earnings in the future it may indicate that more
Harrogate district residents are now choosing to both live and work
within the district rather than travelling outside to access higher
paid jobs in nearby cities. Commuting statistics
from the 2001 Census showed over 19000 residents of the district
travelled elsewhere for work. Meanwhile around
12500 residents of other districts travelled into Harrogate for
work purposes, creating a new commuting flow of -6526 for the
district, a figure that the local authority is keen to
reduce.
Want to know more?
More detailed information about the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) is available on the NOMIS Labour Market Statistics Website at www.nomisweb.co.uk.
Information on the 2001 Census is available on the National Statistics website at www.statistics.gov.uk/census.
For a detailed statistical overview of the Harrogate district economy please click here