In the interests of transparency the ONS has published some very early findings from the new Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS), which remains in development. The data were published solely to help us inform and involve labour market experts and other stakeholders in the development of TLFS and do so in accordance with the UK Statistics Code of Practice.
As we make abundantly clear, these TLFS data are both indicative and experimental. We would put no weight on the employment rates implied as further critical improvements were still to be implemented to the questionnaire to better estimate the levels of employment, unemployment and economic inactivity. We expect these changes to resolve outstanding issues before the TLFS is adopted for the production of our labour market statistics.
However, the growth rates in these TLFS data are much more closely aligned to the growth rates produced using our adjusted methodology than those produced using the raw LFS data. So while these TLFS data were not used in the calculation of the adjusted ONS estimates, the fact that the movements were closer helped validate and triangulate our new approach.