The U.K. Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates employment, unemployment, economic inactivity, hours worked and redundancies from the U.K. Labour Force Survey (LFS) which samples households, not establishments. The sample is representative of the U.K. population over a three-month period, not a one-month period. The most robust estimates of short-term movements in these estimates are obtained by comparing consecutive three-month periods, e.g., January to March 2017 against October to December 2016.

First, select variables are repeated in the LFS and the "average weekly earnings" release. So that we can carry both datasets without mnemonic collisions, we have renamed the former by inserting an "LM" specifier. For example, you might have a legacy basket containing ONSMGSCM.IGBR, for which the updated mnemonic is ONSLMMGSCM.IGBR. (This is our copy of ONS series MGSC.)

Second, the LFS monthly time series are constructed as three-month moving averages. ONS labels each interval using the middle month, but Data Buffet policy is to use the final month. Hence, the question "is this series correctly up-to-date?" can be confusing. Prior to this overhaul, we read series into Data Buffet using the ONS middle-month date, which looks like a two-month lag; now, we use the final-month date, which looks like a one-month lag. At the time of writing the configuration is:

• Reference date on release, per ONS: April 2017
• "Last value" metadata on individual Data Buffet series: March 2017
• ONS date: February 2017
• Interval: January to March 2017

Third, we have amended the unit-descriptor metadata on each series by inserting the "3-mo MA" symbol.

The series reside in the historical catalog (United Kingdom » Labor and Wages » Labor Market Statistics » ... » Monthly | Quarterly | Annual) and include, for example:

• ONSLMMGSCM.IGBR = Unemployed - Both sexes - Ages 16 and older, (Ths. # 3-mo MA, SA)
• ONSLMAP2YQ.IGBR = All vacancies - Both sexes, (Ths. # 3-mo MA, SA)
• ONSLMYCHPA.IGBR = Economically active - Both sexes, (Ths. # 3-mo MA, SA)

Because catalog locations are subject to change, the upper-right search box on DataBuffet.com provides a "find in catalog" mode that accepts a mnemonic.