Economy

Painting the full picture: what our statistics tell us about the labour market

Categories: Data, Economy, ONS
Picture of person job hunting on a laptop

On Monday we published a short blog on the linkages between the labour market statistics and estimates of population here. But there has also been interest in how our statistics describing the labour market fit together.  Here Debra Leaker looks at the different figures the ONS publishes and the picture they paint.   

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Nice one CHAPS: how Bank of England card data are telling us more about consumer spending

Categories: Coronavirus, Data, Economy, ONS

The pandemic has had such an impact on our everyday lives – movement restrictions, store closures, panic buying and people occupying more time at home have all influenced our spending patterns and consumer behaviour. David Matthewson explains how, for the first time, the ONS will publish credit and debit card transaction data from the Bank of England that will give us more detailed information on how we have been spending our money over the last twelve months.  

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How the COVID-19 Pandemic has accelerated the shift to online spending

Categories: Coronavirus, Data, Economy
Image shows someone's hands holding a credit card over a laptop keyboard, like they are shopping online

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound effect on the retail sector with many stores forced to close at the height of lockdown. During that time consumers switched their spending to online. As Rhys Dalgleish explains, since many shops have now reopened, the shift back to in store purchasing has begun but a far higher proportion remains online than before the crisis.

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Measuring the UK housing market?

Categories: Coronavirus, Data, Economy, ONS
Image of a house on a scales. There is a green up arrow on the left and a down arrow in red on the right of it

House prices and the state of the property market are an abiding national obsession. How much is my place worth, are prices rising around here and can I afford to buy yet? The coronavirus pandemic has made the task of collecting data about the housing and rental markets more challenging, but the ONS and others have  continued to produce figures. Here Chris Jenkins looks what they say about the state of the property market in pandemic so far.

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