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Office for National Statistics (ONS)

Locations: Darlington, Manchester, Titchfield, and Newport 

Number of Placements: 25 

Salary: £22,699 (AO National) 

Job Description: 

Here at the Office for National Statistics (ONS), we have unrivalled access to a vast breadth and depth of data. Every day, we use this to produce trusted statistics and insightful analysis that informs both the public and policymakers on the issues that matter most.

Our work spans the production of essential economic statistics and the analysis that brings them to life to support decision makers and help people understand the UK economy. Our key focus is producing high quality, relevant and timely core statistics: gross domestic product, inflation, public sector finances, labour market statistics, trade and the balance of payments. We're also expanding our use of administrative data, while transforming our surveys and moving off legacy statistical systems.

ONS employs many GES Sandwich students each year to work in several different business areas. The area you will be allocated to will depend on your skillset, business needs and priority of work.  

ONS’ economics capability is growing, and you will be part of a large community offering the very best support to help you develop your generic wider skills as well as your economic skills.  

Main objectives/activities you will be involved in: 

  • Drafting and publishing analytical notes and articles relating to ONS statistics and the wider economic context  

  • Undertaking analysis to quality-assure the economic coherence in regular economic statistics releases  

  • Economic briefing on different sectors of the economy to inform statistics compilers of the wider economic context  

  • Support statistical production areas with economic research, analysis, and technical development 

  • Presentations/seminars to internal and external stakeholders on ONS work and/or wider economic development 

  • Contribution to/engagement with professional learning and development activities for/by economists  

  • Behaviours:  

  • Communicating with others  

  • Working to deadlines and under pressure  

  • Delivering quality outputs to time  

  • Working with stakeholders/clients (within ONS in the main)  

  • Working under own direction/initiative - line management is in place, but economists are expected to manage their workload and take the initiative in driving their objectives/outputs forward.  

  • Communicating/delivering messages with impact  

  • Working flexibly 

Example Post 1: Surveys and Economic Indicators Division

This post supports the Regional GDP branch within the Surveys and Economic Indicators division. The team is currently working on reintroducing experimental quarterly regional growth estimates to be published on the ONS website by processing administrative data from HMRC VAT returns alongside various other data sources. The estimates attract significant interest from our key stakeholders and wider users, these include regional authorities, devolved administrations, other government departments, academics and the media.

The main elements of this role are data cleaning and quality assurance of the administrative data and subsequent outputs, assisting with compiling and proof reading of statistical bulletins, as well as providing ad-hoc analyses of our data to meet user needs. Significant development work is currently ongoing with the methods and systems used for these experimental statistics, the postholder will assist with evaluating and testing of ongoing development work and documenting of current processes. 

Development of statistical and coding skills (Python or R as well as statistical skills) will be encouraged to allow the postholder to better understand the data and analysis. Opportunities to collaborate and work on projects with other teams would also be available.

Example post 2: Productivity, Investment and Research Division 

The placement student in the public service productivity team will be responsible for producing quarterly estimates of public service productivity using an established methodology and system. They will contribute to writing and publishing articles on this every quarter. In addition, they will contribute to the team’s research into new areas and improvements to existing measures.  

They will need to communicate well with the team, presenting research and analysis clearly and effectively with a range of colleagues. They will also support the wider productivity team with quality assurance of their work and support any events or development work by the team. Students also participate in the Placement Student Network Group and contribute to ONS events to promote its work to a wider audience and future students. 

Example post 3: Business Architecture, Transformation and Strategy Division 

The Data Sources team sits at the heart of efforts to transform and optimise the Office for National Statistics use of data sources. The team is split into 3 areas of Data Acquisitions, Data Quality and Data Source Innovation, which provide key insight and direction towards overall ONS data source strategy and supporting ONS’s ambitious transformation plans.  

The role will provide opportunities to work across all 3 areas of the team, getting involved in supporting through the process of new data source acquisitions, assessing the quality of data sources within the organisation, and providing support across the organisation to improve the capability of statistics through improved data source usage. The work provides direction towards key decisions on how data source usage can better support the ONS goal of producing ‘Statistics for the public good.’ The role provides the chance to get involved in a range of different tasks and projects across the team, including analytical work, application of economic theory, working with a variety of colleagues, stakeholder engagement and project management experience. It also provides great opportunities for both personal and working development.  

Location Information:

The ONS operates a flexible hybrid working model across the UK, with colleagues linked to one of our contractual locations working between office and remote throughout the week. The locations for these roles are Newport, Titchfield (Fareham), Manchester and Darlington.

All colleagues are required to work from their contractually allocated site for at least 40% of their working time. Due to current capacity constraints, there is currently an exception for colleagues based at the Darlington Economic Campus, this is expected to move to 40% attendance in 2027-28 for Darlington.

The induction process for these roles will be conducted in person. 

Eligibility Requirements: 

Candidates will need to hold the right to work in the UK and meet Civil Service Nationality Rules. 

Security: 

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check. 

See our vetting charter. 

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard checks. 

Security Clearance:

For ONS the requirement for Security Check (SC) clearance is to have been present in the UK for 3 consecutive years immediately prior to applying and the department will consider eligibility by exception on a case-by-case basis. You will be asked to provide information regarding your UK residency during your application, and failure to provide this will result in your application being rejected.

If you are unsure that you meet the eligibility above, please read the information available on Gov.uk on this link. Failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected and any offer of employment being withdrawn.

At the point of SC application, you will need to provide or give access to the following evidence:

  • Departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records)

  • UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records

  • Your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency

  • Security Services records

Nationality requirements:

These roles are broadly open to the following groups:

  • UK nationals

  • nationals of the Republic of Ireland

  • nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK

  • nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)

  • nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)

  • individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020

  • Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements