ONS to spend millions on temp workers to fix ‘unusable’ UK employment data

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has signed a deal worth £8 million to hire hundreds of temporary workers in a bid to repair what economists warn is “virtually unusable” data on employment in the UK.

The move comes amid mounting criticism of the agency’s flagship labour force survey (LFS), which policymakers at the Bank of England rely on to guide interest rate decisions.

Under the agreement finalised last month, staffing agency Randstad will recruit 148 temporary field interviewers to bolster the ONS’s permanent team of 549 people. Meanwhile, another recruitment firm, Alexander Mann Solutions, is expected to bring in around 200 more interviewers by May 2025. These new hires will carry out face-to-face visits to households, encouraging them to complete online questionnaires.

The ONS has been grappling with falling response rates in its labour force survey since the pandemic, when doorstep visits were halted. Participation has recovered from a low of 12.7 per cent in 2023 to about 20 per cent, but remains well below the 40 per cent level seen in 2019. As a result, data to capture the working arrangements of Britain’s 45 million-strong workforce is based on only 47,000 responses.

Economists have raised concerns that this data gap is hampering the Bank of England’s decision-making, particularly in the run-up to a key monetary policy meeting on 6 February. Andrew Goodwin, chief UK economist at Oxford Economics, said that “concerns about the quality of data from the UK’s labour force survey make it virtually unusable at present”.

Beyond labour market data, the ONS has also postponed a separate project to incorporate detailed supermarket scanner information into the national inflation basket. The agency said it was “prudent” to delay a planned March 2025 launch by a year, due to the complexity and importance of the data.

Temporary field roles advertised through Randstad are offering £12.55 an hour outside London and £14.85 in the capital for 22 to 30 hours a week. While those wages exceed the new national living wage of £12.21 due to come in this April, union officials say the ONS should focus on long-term recruitment and pay structures to address deep-rooted morale issues.

Fran Heathcote, general secretary of the PCS trade union, criticised the cost of outsourcing to an agency and called for “addressing long-term recruitment and retention issues” instead. Staff turnover at the ONS is running at about 25 per cent, with internal surveys citing dissatisfaction with management and pay.

Nik Males of the Prospect union echoed these concerns: “Political and economic decisions are being made on the back of data that could be gathered more effectively. They need to wake up and smell the coffee.”

Acknowledging the problem, the ONS said it is increasing the number of interviewers and intends to launch a “transformed labour force survey” as part of a long-term solution. It also recently tested a shorter version of its questionnaire to encourage higher engagement and pledged to provide further updates this spring.

“We strive for an honest and inclusive culture that encourages staff feedback,” an ONS spokesperson said. “We recently commissioned a lessons learned review to ensure the views of those involved in the transformed labour force survey project were heard.”

The concern over data gaps comes as the latest official figures showed a rise in unemployment, adding to uncertainty over how the Bank of England will view the UK’s economic trajectory as it sets interest rates in the coming weeks.

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ONS to spend millions on temp workers to fix ‘unusable’ UK employment data