CIN30 The new BRES: Changes in London’s jobs, 2008 and 2009 compared

In December 2010 the ONS released its first publication of the Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES) which replaces the Annual Business Inquiry (ABI). BRES is regarded as the definitive source of official Government employee statistics by industry. A main aim of the new survey is to improve the quality of regional estimates.

We present the London picture according to BRES 2009, comparing with BRES 2008 which was released alongside it. The survey change creates a discontinuity in the data, as does the change in industrial classification to SIC 2007. We look specifically at these changes and examine how we might overcome these discontinuities for time series data.

BRES data for 2008 and 2009 suggests that London's employment been less resilient to the recent recession than previously thought. We compare BRES data with other estimates of employees and employment, as well as with other indicators of the London economy. The picture is far from clear.