Transforming the Labour Force Survey – the way ahead

10 Apr 2025 01:11 PM

The Office for National Statistics has today published its latest update on the transformation of its labour market statistics.

We have successfully tested an experimental shortened Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS) questionnaire and undertaken a period of quantitative and qualitative research and methodological development, working closely with external experts and in partnership with our key users. Following on from this work, going forward there will be a new TLFS design comprising two parts:

The new TLFS design brings together best practice from survey design and user experience design, making it easy for those selected to respond. The new design and implementation approach have been assured and endorsed by Professor Ray Chambers and Professor James Brown, the Labour Market Technical Group and the Stakeholder Advisory Panel, which includes representatives from the Bank of England, HM Treasury and the Office for Budget Responsibility as well as independent experts.

Work is already under way to make the new TLFS design operational, with its introduction planned across the second half of 2025. An assessment of these new data will be made in collaboration with key users in July 2026, aiming for transition of our published headline labour market statistics in November 2026. However, the timing of the transition will be data-led and could be later if our assessment, or user needs, require more data to be collected and assessed.

Until transition, the current Labour Force Survey (LFS) will continue as the lead measure. The LFS response rate has improved from 12.7% in July-September 2023 to 19.6% in October-December 2024, with 63,069 individual responses in October to December 2024 compared with 44,238 in July to September 2023. Continued improvements to the LFS, including increases in interviewer numbers and a full historic reweighting once new sub-national population projections are available, are planned throughout 2025 into 2026. These sit alongside wider initiatives designed to improve response rates across all ONS social surveys.

Welcoming the update, National Statistician Professor Sir Ian Diamond said:

“Our work to improve the quality of labour market statistics and address the real challenges the Labour Force Survey has faced continues to be a top priority. Today’s announcement marks a pivotal move in setting up these vital statistics for the future

“I’m very grateful to the external experts who have provided advice and assurance, and to ONS colleagues who have worked so hard to develop this plan.”

Commenting on the review, Professor Jonathan Portes, who chairs the ONS Labour Market Stakeholder Advisory Panel, said:

“Expert colleagues on the Labour Market Stakeholder Advisory Panel have worked closely to develop the way forward on the Transformed Labour Force Survey and endorse the revised design and implementation plan. In the meantime, the quality of the existing Labour Force Survey continues to improve and sit alongside the range of other sources to enable an assessment of the labour market picture.”

In their report, Professors Chambers and Brown say:

“Given the complexity of social surveys on this topic, we were pleased to support the extensive methodological research and development undertaken and endorse the new Transformed Labour Force Survey design. The implementation plan is the approach likely to give the smoothest transition for users for these statistics that are crucial for decision makers.”

Notes to Editors

  1. The full article Labour market transformation – update on progress and plans: April 2025 is available on the ONS website.
  2. The new TLFS design has been assured and endorsed by Ray Chambers, Professor of Statistical Methodology at the University of Wollongong, and James Brown, Professor of Official Statistics at the Australian Bureau of Statistics in their report on the UKSA website.
  3. The sample sizes of the Core and Plus TLFS modules is planned to be 90,000 each. Further details of the design, developed in collaboration with users, are provided in a technical design review.
  4. The ONS strategic business plan was published on 3 April 2025.
  5. With LFS data now reweighted, we are updating our analysis on coherence between the LFS and Workforce Jobs, and will publish the results alongside the regular labour market statistics on 15 April 2025.
  6. Full details of LFS response rates up to the end of 2024 can be found in our Labour Force Survey performance and quality monitoring report: October to December 2024.

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