Update on progress and plans: December 2024

ONS have published an update on their labour market transformation progress and plans. The main points from this are given below.

Labour Force Survey and Annual Population Survey

• ONS continue to address Labour Force Survey (LFS) quality issues through targeting improvements across data collection, methodology and communication about how LFS data should currently be used.
• The recovery plan implemented into the Labour Force Survey (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.
• LFS quarterly person data have been reweighted back to 2019 using updated population numbers; we have published an article showing the impact, and full results will be released on 17 December as part of the regular Labour Market publication.
• Reweighted two-quarter longitudinal LFS person outputs are expected in Spring 2025, and a more complete reweighting of all LFS and Annual Population Survey (APS) data expected to follow during 2025 and 2026.
• Following discussions with users about quality of LFS and APS, we continue to increase fieldwork capacity, undertaking further assessments of potential bias in the outputs, and bringing together survey and administrative data sources to help build a comprehensive understanding of the labour market.

Transformed Labour Force Survey

• The focus of activity on the Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS) has been to undertake tests to improve the quality of the data, investigating the effects of a shortened questionnaire and specific changes to the content; early indications show positive outcomes from these tests, notably some reduction in partial responses.
• TLFS remains the long-term solution for collecting labour market data, and we expect to deliver a more detailed evaluation early next year to inform Spring 2025 decisions on the future design of the TLFS.