UK statistics office says operations error will affect future labour data

LONDON, June 19 (Reuters) - ​Britain's ⁠statistics office said on ​Friday an operational error in ​May ‌and early June will temporarily reduce ⁠the quality of its headline ⁠jobs data, ​with the first impact seen in data being released in July.

The ​Office ‌for National Statistics said the issue stemmed from an over-allocation of telephone interviewers ​from the Labour Force Survey to ‌its forthcoming replacement during May and early June, ‌leading to lower LFS response rates.

The ONS said this would ​lead to a degree of reduced ‌quality in labour market statistics being released in July, with a smaller ⁠effect ⁠on subsequent releases, ‌with the first datasets affected covering the ​March-to-May ​2026 rolling quarter. (Reporting ‌by Muvija M and William James, writing by Sam Tabahriti; editing by David Milliken)