Response rates to a survey underpinning estimates of UK GDP and inflation rates have fallen in a similar way to a decline in the jobs survey, prompting the Office for National Statistics to take emergency action in order to ensure the quality of its figures.
The statistics agency said it had put more interviewers into the field earlier this year to boost responses to its survey on living costs and food, in an effort to pre-empt data problems of the kind caused by the collapse of its labour force survey (LFS).
Problems with the LFS have left policymakers unable to gauge the true state of the jobs market — and the ONS says this crucial input for decisions on interest rates may not be fixed until 2027.