Development of the UK Labour Market Tables

Labour is a key input to production, yet it has historically been less explicitly represented than capital in the System of National Accounts (SNA). The 2025 SNA addresses this through Labour Market Tables (LMTs), which reconcile labour statistics with national accounts across four dimensions: jobs, persons, volume (hours), and labour payments. This paper examines how LMTs could be compiled in the United Kingdom and the challenges involved. We review practices across national statistical institutions on the development of labour market tables or labour accounts, focusing on how household surveys, business surveys and administrative data are reconciled to address inconsistencies in job counts, hours worked, employment measures and labour payments. We also examine the relationship between International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) standards and the SNA, identifying three main sources of divergence: the production boundary, status in employment and the residency principle. Drawing on Office for National Statistics outputs, particularly Workforce Jobs and Productivity Hours, we map available data sources to the four LMT quadrants and identify the harmonisation procedures and accounting adjustments needed for SNA consistency. We also highlight gaps in coverage, including own-use production of goods, volunteer work, unpaid trainee work, child employment, undeclared work and cross-border labour flows. The paper contributes a UK-specific approach to LMT compilation, distinguishing issues that can be addressed using existing data from those requiring further development. We recommend prioritising linked employer–employee data, a supplementary survey module on other forms of work, and residency adjustments for the self-employed. A phased approach would support implementation while addressing data gaps over time, strengthening the integration of labour statistics into national accounts and their use in productivity analysis and policymaking.