Economic Commentary: Fewer taking part in labour market surveys – a challenge for monetary policy
Economic Commentaries, News Over time, the response rate in various statistical surveys, including the Labour Force Survey (LFS), has decreased. This development is common to several countries, and was accentuated in many places in connection with the pandemic.
It entails a challenge for monetary policy, as reliable data is fundamental to the Riksbank being able to make a good assessment of resource utilisation, which in turn is decisive for a well-balanced monetary policy. This is what Caroline Flodberg and Pernilla Wasén of the Riksbank's Monetary Policy Department write in an Economic Commentary.
With more uncertain data, the analysis needs to be based on other sources to a greater extent, both to get a picture of actual developments in the labour market and to make forecasts. To support its assessment of the labour market situation, the Riksbank has for a long time used many data sources, such as register data from the Swedish Public Employment Service, the Economic tendency Survey, and the Riksbank’s own Business Survey. If other sources clearly point to a different development than the LFS, this is taken into account in the analysis, say the authors.