Mind you, this has been an ongoing issue since late 2023 already. And when the ONS could not figure out how to improve the data reliability, they opted to try and revamp the whole Labour Force Survey (LFS). In 2024, they announced that they would be transitioning to a Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS). That “in order to improve the quality of the labour market data based on a more adaptive and responsive survey”.
But during this time until now, the labour market data remains suspect at best and the Bank of England itself has come out to criticise the statistics office on more than one occasion already.
The latest report by Bloomberg now states that the ONS is planning to prepare for contingency plans to delay the launch of its new jobs survey by up to six months.
The initially scheduled plan was to make the transition and roll out the new labour market survey in November. However, another scenario is now under consideration where the survey is launched in May 2027 instead. Geez. Quite unreal now, innit?
As things stand, the ONS labour market report is still the best gauge one can use to get a handle on things but it isn’t quite of the same quality and assurance as it was before all these shenanigans.
But honestly, data quality issues for a report so important like the labour market survey is quite something. I mean, this is a key economic indicator for policymakers and for markets. So, the ONS really has to just step up and be better here.
The past year alone has also seen the UK statistics office had a few gaffes:
- UK stats office to pause publication of producer price index
- UK stats office deals with another blunder, this time in public finances data
This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.