Stats that then! A look back at 2019
2019 was another big year for the Office for National Statistics (ONS), filled with better data, new headlines and exciting…
Read more on Stats that then! A look back at 2019 Wrapping up ‘Black Friday’: How the ONS captures the effect of a major shopping trend
It’s an American import that in just a few years has changed our traditional shopping habits in the pre-Christmas period. Now it looks like ‘Black Friday’ is here to stay. Rhian Murphy explains how the ONS takes account of the impact of ‘Black Friday’ when compiling the UK’s most comprehensive and influential retail statistics.
Read more on Wrapping up ‘Black Friday’: How the ONS captures the effect of a major shopping trendNo half measures: using tax data to monitor jobs and pay better
Access to new sources of data is helping the ONS to produce quicker and more detailed economic indicators. Now, working with HM Revenue and Customs, we have for the first time jointly published estimates of employees and earnings based on monthly real-time tax information. David Freeman explains what these new data give us and how they fit into the ongoing transformation of UK economics statistics.
Read more on No half measures: using tax data to monitor jobs and pay betterHiding in plain sight? Why economically inactive people aren’t in ‘hidden unemployment’
You’re either classed as employed or unemployed, right? Well, wrong, actually – there are three different possible ways people can be classified in the labour market. Here David Freeman looks at the third status, called ‘economic inactivity’ and explains how ONS statistics fully capture people’s involvement, or lack of it, with the world of work and why economically inactive people aren’t just in ‘hidden unemployment’.
Read more on Hiding in plain sight? Why economically inactive people aren’t in ‘hidden unemployment’People power: how we estimate the economic value of UK citizens
The latest ONS estimate values the ‘human capital’ of the United Kingdom at £21.4 trillion. It’s a staggering figure but what does it mean? Put simply, human capital is the economic value of the skills, knowledge and experience of the UK workforce. Richard Tonkin explains how the figures are put together and how the ONS plans to take a far broader view of human capital in the future.
Read more on People power: how we estimate the economic value of UK citizens