Labour Market and Welfare

The Labour Market and Welfare theme includes statistics measuring different aspects of work and jobs and covers people’s employment, working patterns and the types of work they do. The theme also covers any earnings and benefits they receive.  

In 2022/23, we published our findings on a range of labour market and welfare statistics, including;  

• the first set of findings from our review of ONS’ transformation of the Labour Force Survey (November 2022) 
• confirmation of National statistics designation for the Living Costs and Food Survey (October 2022) 
• our compliance check of Pensioners’ Income Series statistics (September 2022) 

We continue to explore public concerns/queries about labour market and welfare statistics through our casework, working alongside statistic producers. For example, highlighting a lack of statistics on Universal Credit Work Capability Assessments and commenting on the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) measurement of the Way to Work campaign target. 

As the cost-of-living crisis continues and as explored in our blog we want to ensure that statistics used to help measure the impact on household incomes, in particular, for those people living in poverty are robust, accurate and timely. We continue to follow-up on our recommendations for our income-based poverty review, with a latest guest blog highlighting some progress made in this important area.  

More recently, in November 2022 we started our review of HMRC and ONS’ Earnings and Employment statistics using Pay as You Earn Real Time Information (PAYE RTI) and are continuing to provide regulatory support to the ONS as we work on our review of its transformation of the Labour Force Survey. 

In 2023/24, we look forward to continuing our engagement with statistics producers across the UK and will publish more detail on our regulatory plans over the next coming months.   

Contact our regulators for this domain Vicky Stone, Gemma Keane, or Gillian Fairbairn for more information. 

Planned Work

Published Correspondence – Labour Market and Welfare domain

Publications – Labour Market and Welfare domain