Today the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) has published an update on progress made on labour market statistics, produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The report consolidates OSR’s work on both the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS), bringing together our judgements to date and providing updates on the remaining open recommendations and requirements. We have also considered ONS’s December update on progress and plans.
ONS has broadened its engagement and has been increasingly open in its communication around its work on labour market statistics. ONS staff are working to regain robust estimates from the LFS, but the five-wave design of the survey means that it takes time for improvements to fully feed through into published statistics, and ONS resources are spread thinly. ONS has indicated that it expects changes to be fully included through all five of the survey waves in the May 2025 publication. We will engage with ONS and users to understand whether these changes have increased quality sufficiently to meet user needs.
Following recommendations previously set out by OSR, ONS have revised their plans for the TLFS. In response to the updated plans, we have made further recommendations for ONS to set out detailed plans for transitioning to the TLFS, and to set out plans for regular reporting on the progress of the interim action plan from its ‘lessons learnt’ exercise.
ONS has taken a step forward by setting out a realistic view of the time that might be taken to complete the TLFS programme. Our update provides further recommendations to improve the statistics, and we have asked ONS to report on progress again by July 2025.
Given the continued challenges around these statistics, we conclude that they should continue to be labelled ‘official statistics in development’.
Related links: Statistics from the Labour Force Survey – Office for Statistics Regulation