Economy | Page 14 | National Statistical

A COVID-19 conundrum: why are nearly half a million ‘employees’ not being paid?

Jonathan Athow
July 16, 2020

Categories: Data, Economy, ONS

The ONS uses various data sources to measure changes in the UK labour market. One of those, the ‘Real Time Information’ from the HMRC PAYE system, shows a sharp drop in the number of employees, but the Labour Force Survey does not. Here Jonathan Athow looks at a possible explanation for this seeming contradiction.

Moving online – how ONS is digitising its labour market surveys

David Freeman
July 8, 2020

Categories: Data, Economy, ONS

As part of our wider response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the ONS has been looking at new ways to measure changes in wages and employment, including using government data sources quicker and introducing new online surveys. Here David Freeman talks about how our work on new surveys is progressing.

Shopping may never be the same again

Josh Martin
June 29, 2020

Categories: Coronavirus, Data, Economy, ONS

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has changed many elements of our everyday lives, including how we shop. The introduction of movement restrictions meant the closure of most physical shops, so many consumers have been doing their shopping from home instead. In May 2020, over a third of retail spending was online – the highest ever share. In this blog Josh Martin takes a closer look at the online retail sales data to understand this trend.

Understanding the impact on jobs and pay – how the ONS is now measuring the Labour market

Jonathan Athow
June 15, 2020

Categories: Business, Coronavirus, Data, Economy

Tomorrow the ONS will release its latest set of labour market data showing how, and to what extent, the coronavirus pandemic has hit employment and wages. In this post Jonathan Athow compares the strengths and weaknesses of the main data sources we use to produce the figures, including the advantages of new ‘real time’ PAYE data – and the limitations of the claimant count figures.

The road to business recovery

Grant Fitzner
June 4, 2020

Categories: Coronavirus, Data, Economy, ONS

In the immediate aftermath of the introduction of movement restrictions, ONS introduced new surveys to monitor the impacts of Coronavirus (COVID-19) on the UK’s economy and society. Here Grant Fitzner reflects on the findings of the survey of impacts on UK businesses and looks at what it might mean for the UK economy in the near future.