Consultation on Proposed Changes to Certain Labour Market Tables and Related Publications

Overview

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes the national and regional labour market tables every month, some of which feed into the labour market bulletin https://www.ons.gov.uk/releases/uklabourmarketstatisticsfeb2018.

The ONS also publishes a set of supplementary tables every quarter which provide a more detailed breakdown of some of the national labour market tables.

All these tables are produced using data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), which is the largest household survey in the United Kingdom. 

The tables published on a quarterly basis were established some time ago and, as the structure of the labour market changes, we carried out a review of the quality and use of these tables. Our findings inform this consultation.

The proposals in the consultation affect only the supplementary labour market tables, with no implications for the tables feeding in to the labour market bulletin. At this stage the proposals relate only to the published tables and will not impact on the LFS micro data used to produce these outputs.

As the micro data for the production of these tables will still be available (through the  UK Data Service (https://www.ukdataservice.ac.uk/get-data/how-to-access/accesssecurelab)) users can produce this analysis themselves if they require it.  ONS also offers a service for the production of bespoke tables, so if users are unable to produce the tables themselves they can order them for a fee.

Why We Are Consulting

The proposed changes to the supplementary labour market tables and our reasoning behind them are outlined in the consultation document. 

We would value your feedback on the proposed changes to understand any concerns or challenges before we make a decision on implementing them.

As someone who is interested in ONS statistics, we would welcome your views. We will publish a summary of our findings after the survey closes, and do not intend to publish individual responses. Your response might be made available if required under a Freedom of Information request. We will not publish personal contact details.

To take part in this consultation, please review the attached consultation document and then record your responses in the online survey via the link below. 

What Happens Next

We will publish a summary of the comments made no more than 12 weeks after the consultation closes. Any changes that have been identified through the consultation will be implemented as soon as possible.