Release

Labour market statistics time series: October 2023

Release date: Cancelled
Important information:

As a result of the Operational Note below, Labour Market time series will not be published tomorrow. The Office for National Statistics is transitioning to better methods of data collection fit for the digital age. The changes in progress mean some temporary disruption as traditional surveys are updated or replaced. We are adapting our approach to maintain the reliability of key labour market statistics during this transitional phase. As we announced a week ago, this month’s release of data were rescheduled to give us additional time to produce the best possible estimates for the labour market. Tomorrow we will publish a new series using additional data sources to produce adjusted levels and rates for employment, unemployment and inactivity for the latest two 3-monthly periods (May to July 2023 and June to August 2023). This will be published as a new table, X10. We will not be publishing the unadjusted June to August LFS data tomorrow.

Summary

Large dataset which contains labour market statistics data time series.

Changes to this release date

  1. Previous date

    17 October 2023 7:00am

    Reason for change

    To improve the quality of our Labour Market estimates, including response rates, we are in the process of transforming the Labour Force Survey, asking more people in different ways about their engagement with the jobs market. The first figures from this new transformed survey are due to be published in our headline releases from next spring. As we have explained previously – and in common with other national statistical institutes – response rates for some key ONS household surveys have been falling. This has complicated the production of some of the indicators based on the current UK Labour Force Survey (LFS). Because of this, the publication of the next ONS Labour Force Survey (previously due on Tuesday 17 October) is being put back slightly to give us additional time to produce the best possible estimates of the labour market using the best available data sources. These data will now be published on Tuesday 24 October.

About the data

Accredited Official Statistics

These are accredited official statistics. They have been independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) and found to comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. This broadly means that the statistics:

  • meet user needs
  • are presented clearly and accessibly
  • are produced using appropriate data and sound methods
  • are managed impartially and objectively in the public interest