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Update on the transformation of the Labour Force Survey

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) Labour Force Survey is one of the UK’s biggest regular household surveys and a key source of economic data. Now in its 50th year, the survey collects important information about employment and related topics from thousands of households every quarter.

Data from both the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and Annual Population Survey (APS) are widely available to researchers via the UK Data Service.

The Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS)

To maintain this important data resource for the future, the ONS are introducing a new Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS).

On Tuesday 28 November, the UK Data Service hosted an Introduction to the new Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS) – an online session with the ONS to give users a chance to learn about the new survey. The speakers at the session were Orlaith Fraser, Head of Statistical Transformation for Social Surveys at the ONS, and James Harris, Head of the Labour Force Survey at the ONS.

They explained how the ONS has been transforming the LFS and APS since 2016 to create the new Transformed Labour Force Survey for 2024. They talked through the design of the new survey and the types of data outputs that will be available to users. Some key points from the session were that:

  • The ONS aims to continue releasing quarterly, annual, and longitudinal datasets based on TLFS data.
  • There are some changes to the questionnaire from the LFS and there will be a different naming convention for variables.
  • The TLFS is being assessed against quality criteria, but it is expected the existing LFS will be decommissioned in January 2024. The new TLFS would then be the primary survey data source starting from the January to March 2024 quarter, with this planned to be published in May 2024.
  • The final APS files based entirely on LFS data are planned to cover the period from January to December 2023. Following this, the ONS will continue to produce annual files based on the TLFS, with the first of these covering the period from April 2023 to March 2024.

A recording of the session is available with the slides on the event page: Introduction to the new Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS).

More information

To keep users informed, the ONS is providing regular updates. The most recent is Labour market transformation – update on progress and plans: November 2023. A further update is expected in early 2024.

The ONS have produced Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS) user guidance with a user guide and variable mapping document highlighting changes between the LFS and TLFS. This guidance is expected to be updated again in January 2024.

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