Economy

Store and online data will bring a generational change to ONS price statistics

Categories: Coronavirus, Data, Economy

To aid the response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic the ONS has been introducing many new surveys and started using wider sources of data. Meanwhile important transformational work in other areas, including consumer price statistics has continued. Together the planned improvements form the most significant change to inflation statistics in a generation and will greatly improve the detail and representativity of the ONS measures.

Read more on Store and online data will bring a generational change to ONS price statistics

People matter: improving our estimates of human capital

Categories: Economy, ONS, Population, Public Policy

Alongside the traditional measures of prosperity like GDP, the ONS is at the forefront of an international movement that’s developing new and alternative economic indicators that go beyond simple financial value. Central to this work are the plans to develop new ways of measuring ‘human capital’ that have been unveiled today. Here John Marais makes the case for measuring human capital better.

Read more on People matter: improving our estimates of human capital

Hiding in plain sight? Why economically inactive people aren’t in ‘hidden unemployment’

Categories: Economy, ONS

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’