Using financial data to enhance labour market statistics in Scotland

Introduction

Labour market statistics for Scotland are primarily sourced from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Labour Force Survey (LFS) and Annual Population Survey (APS). In recent years, falling response rates have reduced achieved sample sizes and increased volatility and uncertainty, particularly for detailed breakdowns of the population and local authority estimates. As a result of this, the Labour Market Statistics team in the Scottish Government began a project to assess the quality of existing data sources and explore how a wider range of data could strengthen our outputs.

We released Scottish Government’s Quality Assessment of LFS and APS data for Scotland in April 2025 and Changes to Labour Market Statistics in Scotland in October 2025. These reports detailed our concerns with the decline in response rates from the ONS surveys and our decision to stop funding the LFS Boost for Scotland, respectively. This feasibility study forms the next part of the wider alternative data sources project and the first release evaluating one of the proposed alternative data sources.

The feasibility study was commissioned to establish whether pseudonymised financial data could add useful, timely and granular insight alongside existing labour market statistics sources. It explored the feasibility of estimating employment, unemployment and economic inactivity from bank transaction data at Scotland and sub-Scotland level.

Long-term operational delivery was outside the scope of the feasibility study. However, recommendations for a continuous service were considered in the final phase of the study. Any continuing service would be subject to future procurement, further methodological development, and statistical governance being established.