Gen Z's fear of answering their phones blamed for UK job data errors

Britain's efforts to gather accurate data about its worklessness crisis is being hindered by the fact that Gen Z won't answer their phones, the Bank of England's top economist has warned.

Huw Pill made the claim as the Office for National Statistics came under increasing pressure over the quality of some of its work.

The Bank is among organisations that have criticised the ONS's Labour Force Survey (LFS), the main body of work that shows how many people in the UK are in work, unemployed, on long-term sick leave and other official indicators. 

It comes as ministers wrestle with how to get millions of people off incapacity benefits and back into work. 

Speaking to the Lords' Economic Affairs Committee about the data Mr Pill said it was 'challenging' because the LFS is based on 'calling people up' to ask about their situation.

'There is an element of people don’t answer their phones in the way we used to,' he told peers.

'And I think that was at the heart of what the Governor [of the BoE, Andrew Bailey] said at his Mansion House speech is that there is something perhaps distinctive about the UK that people don’t answer their phones … that is certainly reflected in these results.'

The survey is being altered to rely more on online surveys, he added. 

In May a survey found that a third of Brits panic when their phone rings unexpectedly and many don't even answer calls, with Gen Z pleading 'just text me'.

In a time where cold callers and scammers ringing you up out of the blue happens more often than not, almost 37 per cent of those asked said they are less likely to answer when they receive a call without notice than they were five years ago.

Some 12 per cent of those surveyed said it has been a week - or even longer - since they last spoke to someone on the phone.

And Gen Z have flocked to TikTok to beg people 'text me' and telling their viewers how they just sit 'watching my phone ring' if 'absolutely anyone' calls. 

Ministers are setting out wide-ranging reforms designed to tackle economic inactivity and deliver the Government's promise to bring more than two million people back into work. 

While unemployment stands at almost 1.5 million, economic inactivity has also soared to more than nine million, with 2.8 million people out of work due to long-term sickness – a major driver of the rise in joblessness since the pandemic. 

The ONS has faced criticism over the LFS. Last week the Resolution Foundation think tank said almost one million workers in Britain's jobs market have been 'lost' because of poor data.

And at a meeting in July first reported by Bloomberg, the UK Statistics Authority, which oversees the ONS, admitted that a reliable 'transformed' survey may not be available until 'mid-2027'.

Earlier this month Mr Bailey used his speech to lament the fact that the British don't speak on the phone. 

The travails of the Labour Force Survey are quite well known. It is a substantial problem – and not just for monetary policy – when we don’t know how many people are participating in the economy,' he said, 

'It would help if across the country we were better at answering the phone when the ONS call up. I do struggle to explain when my fellow Governors ask me why the British are particularly bad at this.'