The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) is the most comprehensive source of information on the structure and distribution of earnings in the UK. ASHE provides information about the levels, distribution and make-up of earnings and paid hours worked for employees in all industries and occupations. 2011 Census meanwhile includes an abundance of information on the characteristics of individuals and the households they occupy. Therefore, 2011 Census linked to ASHE allows permanent (ethnicity, nationality, formal education), semi-permanent (disability, number and age of children, marital status) and transient variables (household characteristics) to be analysed alongside ASHE allowing for an increased depth and breadth of possible research avenues on the labour market and beyond. In Phase 1 of the linking process, ONS sought to establish links between ASHE and CEW11 by matching on an employee’s name, sex, age and residential postcode. Robust links were made for 62% of the employee job records in the 2011 ASHE belonging to employees resident in England and Wales; these linked cases were provided in Drop 1 of the dataset. In many cases where a robust link could not be made, this was due to the absence of name data in the ASHE dataset. Accordingly, in Phase 2 of the linkage process, ONS expanded the list of linkage variables to include the employee’s occupation, industry sector and workplace location. By including cases that match on sex, age, residential postcode, workplace location and occupation/industry, ONS have increased the match rate to 74%. Drop 2 of the ASHE-CEW11 dataset contains the full set of linked records arising from the two phases of the linking process. The additional matches are identified as those labelled “OCC_MATCH” or “SIC_MATCH” on the variable desc_link. User guides with more details are available in the Assets tab of this entry.