Compulsory response to Labour Force Survey an ‘option’, says ONS

The UK’s top statistician has hinted that making it compulsory to participate in the Labour Force Survey could be an option to turn around its response rate.

Speaking at a meeting of the Treasury Select Committee yesterday (4 February), Sir Ian Diamond, the National Statistician, said that demanding participation – as is the case in Australia for those selected – was “a fine balance but one that could help potentially with some surveys”.

The Labour Force Survey has struggled to increase response rates in recent years, with rates dropping to as low as 20%. The ONS recently said it would spend £8 million hiring temporary staff to conduct interviews and ask people to participate.

The ONS has previously admitted that the problems with the survey could take until 2027 to be fixed, which has caused concern among policymakers and economists who rely on the data to make decisions.

Diamond told the committee that a lack of resources and recent cuts to the ONS budget were hampering its ability to turn the survey around. He said it was taking colleagues twice the level of effort to get interviews for the survey compared to before the pandemic.

Currently, participants aged 16 and over are randomly selected from private households and other accommodation to be interviewed, but this is not compulsory.

Those that have been invited are asked to call the ONS to make an appointment to be interviewed, and just under a third do so, Diamond said. Those who don’t respond are then contacted and “nudged to take part” but there are “very, very, very high levels of flat refusal”.

People who participate in the survey are then asked to respond to it for five quarters, but there can be dropouts during this period, he admitted.

Diamond said he was encouraged by the improvements to the survey so far, but when asked if the ONS would benefit from more investment and better links to government departments, he said “yes”.

Think tank the Resolution Foundation last year published a briefing note exploring alternatives to the LFS, suggesting that the employment rate could be “materially higher” than ONS predictions, and economic inactivity lower than thought.

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