UK blames GenZ, Millennial's busy lifestyle for upending labour data

The UK government’s statistics agency said the more hectic lives of Generation Z and Millennial workers have forced it to shift the way it collects crucial data on the labour market after its monthly data was hit with problems.

Darren Morgan, director of economic statistics production and analysis at the Office for National Statistics (ONS), said younger people aren’t responding to surveys in the way that older generations do as smartphones, the Internet and social media all compete with ONS data collectors for attention.

The trend forced the ONS to scrap its usual data on employment and unemployment on Tuesday. It released experimental figures that rely on data from payrolls and benefit claims instead of its usual survey, which is conducted mostly by telephone. 

The change left questions about the reliability of data the Bank of England is using to gauge its next step in setting interest rates. Tuesday’s experimental data showed the UK is in its longest run of employment falls since early 2021 but revised figures also suggested that the labour market is tighter than thought.

The report on Tuesday was delayed a week after the ONS acknowledged an especially poor response rate in its latest survey — with younger workers often the least well represented in the data. Morgan said that the struggle to get survey responses is partly a “generational” phenomenon and has been happening worldwide.

“If you think about the ones who are the least time rich, they tend to be the younger people,” Morgan said. “People are so connected, and there’s so many choices for them to how they spend their time. I actually think it is quite different in terms of the world we live in now compared to where we were perhaps even just 20 years ago.”

From next spring, the ONS will launch a new labour force survey to boost responses and release more accurate data. Officials will approach three times as many people, use online surveys and do face-to-face interviews in areas with lower response rates. The survey is the ONS’s biggest and most complex report and relies on contact with people.