Software
I’ve created a few R packages for working with UK labour market datasets. All of them take the source data and compile into a single R data frame where each variable is a column, so that it’s possible to do time series analysis out of the box. In short, they turn each dataset into tidy data.
tidylfs
ONS Labour Force Survey. Works for quarterly data from 1992, or the APS from 2004. Stiches together individual files into one R data.frame, and adds descriptions for occupation, industry. Quality of life improvements like picking the correct weight variable from each quarterly dataset and turning it into a single column.
tidyusoc
Understanding Society/UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS/BHPS). Works on the entire dataset going back to wave 1 of the BHPS. Joins waves together to create a single file, one per category (indresp, youth, etc.).
tidyashe
ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. Experimental. Works for files as they are in DfE, but may not work elsewhere. Adds descriptions to occupation and industry.