Context

The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is the main household survey used to produce official estimates of the UK labour market. In 2023, persistent low response rates raised concerns about the representativeness and reliability of the LFS, leading ONS to temporarily suspend the production of LFS-based estimates.

In response to these challenges, ONS has been transforming the LFS through the development of the TLFS, an online‑first survey designed to modernise labour market data collection and improve resilience, inclusivity and efficiency. ONS has continued to operate the LFS while simultaneously developing and dual‑running the TLFS to allow detailed quality comparisons.

The design of the TLFS separates the original LFS into two components: the TFLS Core and TFLS Plus. The TLFS Core is a streamlined longitudinal survey focused on priority labour market variables, such as employment status and hours worked, with a target completion time of around 15 minutes. The TLFS Plus is a larger cross‑sectional survey collecting wider socioeconomic and local information, with a quarterly sample of around 90,000 households. Both surveys follow an online‑first, multimode approach, with targeted telephone or face‑to‑face follow‑up to support participation by digitally excluded or hard‑to‑reach groups.

OSR has been reviewing labour market statistics from the LFS and the development of the TLFS on an ongoing basis. In February 2025, OSR published an update report on statistics from the LFS, setting out twelve recommendations to support the transformation programme. The report consolidated OSR’s judgements across both the LFS and TLFS. ONS has fully met four of the twelve recommendations and partially met the remaining eight, as detailed below.

As ONS approaches a formal readiness assessment scheduled for July 2026, this report reflects on ONS’s progress against the remaining recommendations and brings together feedback shared by users in autumn 2025 and spring 2026. These user views are captured throughout this report.