The Office for National Statistics has delayed the move from the Labour Force Survey to its replacement online survey, with 2027 now the most likely transition year after further evidence and preparation were deemed necessary.
The headline figure is a shift in timetable: the earliest transition of official labour market headline statistics has moved from November 2026 into 2027, the ONS has confirmed. The figures show that while all agreed major design changes to the Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS) have now been implemented, the regulator reports that only four of twelve recommendations have been fully met, with work continuing on the remaining eight.
The ONS update, posted by Liz McKeown and Alex Lambert, sets out the route towards that 2027 transition and the evidence still needed to support it. A July 2026 evidence-led readiness assessment is described as the next major decision point — it will inform final design decisions, future publication plans and the timing of the next readiness review.
One of the concrete changes already made: the respondent incentive for completing the TLFS has doubled from £10 to £20. The figures also show a meaningful rise in response rates, from 12.7 per cent in July to September 2023 to 19.6 per cent in October to December 2024 — equivalent to 63,069 individual responses compared with 44,238 in the earlier period. The TLFS Core samples around 90,000 households per quarter across Great Britain.
But running both surveys side by side is stretching resources. The Office for Statistics Regulation says the dual-running approach is resource-intensive and that methodological refinements must be fully assured before any full transition can happen. The LFS remains classified as official statistics in development while that work continues.
For Kent, the stakes are practical. Labour market data shapes decisions on local economic policy, employment support and skills planning — tools used by Kent County Council, district councils and local economic partnerships. A change in how employment, unemployment and inactivity estimates are produced could affect how Kent’s figures are calculated and released, though no Kent-specific impact figures were available in the ONS materials.
Source: @ONS