BoE chief economist Huw Pill slams ONS for inadequate jobs data

LFS credibility 'remains uncertain'

Bank of England chief economist Huw Pill has criticised the Office for National Statistics for ongoing quality concerns in the Labour Force Survey, which helps inform the central bank's monetary policy decisions.

In a letter obtained by the FT, Pill told the ONS that while steps taken to address issues with ONS data are welcome, "they have not yet led to an improvement and it remains uncertain whether the credibility of labour force statistics will improve".  The letter, addressed to ONS deputy national statistician Mike Keoghan in May, outlined the Monetary Policy Committee's critique of the statistics office's Labour Force Survey (LFS), a dataset that was suspended in October 2023 because of quality concerns.  Despite the ONS reintroducing face-to-face interviewing to try to boost the LFS sa...