ONS dealing with 20% staf exodus weeks after facing strikes over return to office orders

A business office with a number of employees working at computers while listening to a colleague talking and reviewing some data on wall mounted monitors. (Credit: Tom Werner—Getty Images)

If there’s one organization you would expect to have a handle on hiring, it’s the body in charge of compiling labor market data for the whole of the U.K.

However, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) is facing an exodus of workers just as it attempts to overhaul its statistical operations. And the old controversy of remote and hybrid work is once again not far away.