Staff exodus hits UK’s statistics agency
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The Office for National Statistics risks losing vital technical expertise following an exodus of staff in recent years, an analysis by the Financial Times has shown.
In the year to March, around a fifth of the workforce — 958 — left the UK’s official statistics agency, more than twice the number who joined, according to data obtained via a Freedom of Information request. The departures were up significantly on pre-pandemic levels. In 2018-19, some 694 people left the organisation.
Almost 40 per cent of departures were in mid-level roles, where staff often have important technical skills and policy expertise, up from 34 per cent in the previous year and 24 per cent five years ago.
The departures come as the agency is planning to overhaul the way it produces core economic and population data. In recent months it has come under fire from economists, business leaders and policymakers for its failure to produce reliable data.
Staffing pressures have been exacerbated by industrial action by more than 1,000 ONS employees over the decision to end the flexible working policy introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic.
ONS chief economist Grant Fitzner said the workforce turnover at the agency reflected a tight labour market, with “hot demand” for data skills and “pent-up” activity, after a period where fewer people changed jobs during the pandemic.
He noted the institution faced tough decisions over prioritisation as it overhauled its operations and grappled with a real-term cut of more than 5 per cent to its 2024-25 budget.
“We have to prioritise and at times that does require some difficult choices, but I don’t think that’s any more true at the ONS than it is elsewhere in government,” said Fitzner.
“One of the consequences of the budget challenges we faced last year is the headcount did come down.”
Fitzner said the agency’s budgetary challenges were the result of high inflation and pay pressures. Headline inflation fell to 2.3 per cent in April, down from its 42-year peak of 11.1 per cent in October 2022.
While the number of departures has stayed in line with recent years, the FOI showed ONS recruitment fell sharply during the last financial year, with only 38 per cent as many new hires as the previous year and 49 per cent as many as five years ago.
The ONS was criticised earlier this year after it delayed publication of its new labour force survey until September this year — six months later than previously said. It had suspended releases from the legacy survey between September 2023 and February as low response rates made the data unreliable.
Sarah Cumbers, chief executive of the Royal Statistical Society, said ONS analysts had been put in the “awkward position” of deciding which essential outputs to prioritise and that policymaking would “only suffer as a consequence”.
The ONS said it had made good progress on survey responses and was returning to a sustainable long-term operating model after a significant workforce expansion following the pandemic and 2021 census.
The agency added that its staff turnover rate was in line with pre-pandemic levels with 93 per cent of its current roles filled.
The Public and Commercial Services Union said that ONS exit surveys showed that one in five people leaving since November were influenced by the decision to end flexible working but noted this could be an underestimate.
In the ONS 2024-25 strategy plan, published in April, national statistician Sir Ian Diamond acknowledged that increasingly important skills in areas such as data science had become “harder and more expensive to attract and retain”.
“[Statistics] are required to evolve quicker than ever, using new data sources and methods which are more frequent and granular,” he said, adding that “tight” resources “required tough decisions on prioritisation”.
The strategy report outlined a plan to cut overheads and drive internal efficiencies using AI, but noted that a real-terms budget cut of more than 5 per cent would have an “inevitable” impact on the frequency and format of some outputs.
This story has been amended to clarify issues the ONS has had with the labour force survey.
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