One of the less discussed economic issues in the pandemic has been the big fall in business investment, which contributes to GDP and is also a driver of future productivity growth. Here David Roberts looks at recent trends and what they tell us about the economy.
Read more on Prosperity postponed? How businesses have cut investment through the pandemic
A challenge faced by ONS during the pandemic is the inability to conduct face-to-face household interviews, having to rely on telephone surveys instead. So we’ve been exploring how this might have affected responses to our Labour Force Survey on which the key UK employment data are based. Jonathan Athow explains what we have found and how we plan to tackle it.
Read more on Measuring the labour market during the pandemic
One of the challenges of measuring the economy through the pandemic has been estimating the contribution of the public sector, when the relationship between public spending and outputs – for example classes taught or operations conducted – is very different from pre-COVID-19 times. Katherine Mills talks about how we’ve approached the issue.
Read more on School’s Out: measuring education output in the summer of the pandemic
In less than 6 months from now, everyone in England and Wales will be asked to take part in Census…
Read more on Our plans for running Census 2021 in the time of coronavirus
This week marks 6 months since the beginning of lockdown. It, therefore, feels appropriate to reflect on our response to the pandemic so far and provide an update on our plans for future analysis. Liz McKeown and Darren Morgan, who are leading the analytical response, reflect on how we’ve responded to the coronavirus pandemic to date and look ahead at our future plans.
Read more on 6 months since lockdown began: How we’re continuing to inform during the pandemic