Overhaul of official workforce data may take another two years, ONS admits

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Britain’s official statisticians have admitted that efforts to overhaul unreliable data on Britain’s jobs market may not be ready until 2027, leaving policymakers in the dark over the true state of the UK workforce for up to another two years. Last month, economists at the Resolution Foundation think tank claimed nearly one million workers in Britain’s jobs market have been “lost” because of the poor and unreliable official data and that the rate of UK unemployment and inactivity may have been overstated. “The updated survey data is likely still ‘missing’ well over half a million workers and overstating the country’s inactivity rise, while also over-estimating already dire estimates of labour productivity. “It’s encouraging that the ONS is improving the quality of its labour market data, but more work is urgently needed to reconcile the survey data and tax records.” The ONS said in its latest update on the overhaul of the data: “The recovery plan implemented into the LFS from late 2023 continues to improve response levels and the size of datasets, though the changes have led to some data instability, as the changes take time to progress through waves of data collection into outputs.” It also said it is looking into ways to boost response rates to the survey, including making it mandatory for households to respond, as it is in Australia and France.