BOE chief economist lambasts ONS over poor jobs data quality

This is something I’ve highlighted with each and every UK labour market report, as seen with the latest one here. And it is something that has persisted for a year already now. In case you missed some of the posts about that:

• Heads up: UK labour market data later this month will have a similar caveat (November 2023)
• ONS says January labour market data to continue to use recent adjusted series (January 2024)
• There are still issues plaguing labour market data transformation – ONS (July 2024)

In a time when the BOE is trying to make key decisions on policy, the lack of accuracy in something as crucial as labour market data is rather damning.

That has now seen BOE chief economist, Huw Pill, be rather vocal about the issue. He laments a lack of improvement despite the ONS’ efforts. Adding that it “remains uncertain whether the credibility” of the data will improve in the near future.

This was remarked in a private letter to the ONS as Pill notes that the increased uncertainty of the data has made things “more difficult to gauge the underlying state of the labour market”.

So, again. This is just a reminder that there will continue to be a major caveat attached to the UK labour market report. Keep that in your consideration when trying to interpret the numbers.

This article was written by Justin Low at www.forexlive.com.