ONS field interviewer jobs

An ONS field interviewer visits households chosen at random and interviews the people living there for official surveys run by the Office for National Statistics. You work from home, cover a local area by car, and fit your visits around the times people are actually in, which means a lot of evenings and some weekends. The job is a Civil Service post, so it comes with a Civil Service salary set by ONS, the alpha pension and Civil Service leave.

The surveys you work on

ONS collects much of its social and economic data from household surveys. Field interviewers have worked on studies such as the Labour Force Survey, which feeds the official employment and unemployment figures, the Living Costs and Food Survey and the Wealth and Assets Survey. The mix changes as ONS moves more questioning online and by phone, and interviewers increasingly visit homes to encourage people to take part in an online survey as well as to interview them face to face.

Each month you get a batch of addresses in your area. You write or call ahead where the survey allows, then knock on doors, explain who you are and why the household was chosen, and try to secure an interview. Taking part in most of these surveys is voluntary, so persuading people politely is a large part of the job. The interview itself is done on a laptop or tablet, and you send the data back securely.

Some surveys are short. Others take an hour or more, ask about income, savings or spending in detail, or involve keeping a diary that you collect later. People will tell you personal things, and you are bound by the confidentiality rules that cover all ONS data.

Hours, travel and working alone

Field interviewing follows the hours households keep. People in work are mostly home in the evenings and at weekends, so contracts expect you to be available at those times. In return the work is planned by you within the deadline for each batch, which suits people who want to organise their own week.

Contracts vary. Some posts are part-time with a set number of contracted hours, and adverts say what is expected. Busy months, bad weather and households that need several visits can make the hours uneven, and it is worth asking at interview how the workload is spread and what happens if you cannot finish an assignment.

You will drive a lot. Adverts normally ask for a full driving licence and access to a car, and mileage is paid for work journeys at the rate ONS sets. Mileage allowance and tax relief explains how mileage payments interact with tax if your employer pays less than the approved rate.

You also work alone, often after dark, at addresses you have never visited. ONS has lone working procedures, such as checking in and out, and training covers what to do when a doorstep conversation turns hostile. Most visits are routine, but you need to be comfortable with that risk.

Pay and the Civil Service pension

ONS sets the pay for field interviewer posts within its own Civil Service pay structure, and the salary and any allowances are in the advert. There is no single national rate for the job. The Civil Service pay remit guidance for 2026/27, published on 21 May 2026, allows departments a pay increase of up to 3.5% of their paybill. That is a departmental budget figure, not a promise of a 3.5% rise for each person, and Civil Service grades and pay explains how departments use it.

Part-time pay is a share of the full-time salary for the hours on your contract. Whatever the contract, pay for the hours you work cannot fall below the National Living Wage, which is £12.71 an hour from 1 April 2026 for workers aged 21 and over.

Field interviewers can join the Civil Service pension scheme, alpha. Member contributions for 2026/27 depend on your pensionable pay:

Pensionable pay	Member contribution
£0 to £36,199	4.6%
£36,200 to £56,000	5.45%
£56,001 to £150,000	7.35%
£150,001 and over	8.05%

For part-time staff the band is based on the actual pay you receive. Civil Service pension (alpha) covers how the scheme builds up, and the take-home pay calculator shows what a given salary leaves after tax, National Insurance and pension.

What ONS looks for

You do not need a degree or previous research experience. The work suits people who are good with strangers, persistent without being pushy, and organised enough to manage a caseload against deadlines. Experience in customer service, sales, care work or any job that involved knocking on doors or making cold calls is relevant.

Applications go through Civil Service Jobs and use Success Profiles. Expect questions about behaviours such as Communicating and Influencing, Managing a Quality Service and Delivering at Pace, and at interview, examples of how you have persuaded someone reluctant or handled a difficult conversation. Some campaigns include a short role play of a doorstep introduction.

Before you start there are identity, right to work and security checks. Nationality rules apply as for other Civil Service posts: UK nationals can apply for any post, and most posts are also open to Commonwealth citizens and EEA nationals under the conditions in the Cabinet Office rules.

Training and the first months

New interviewers get initial training on the surveys, the software, data protection and doorstep technique, followed by supervised work in the field. Each survey has its own question set and rules, and you are briefed on new ones as they start. Your response rate, data quality and timeliness are monitored, and a field manager reviews your work and sometimes accompanies you on visits.

Where the jobs are

ONS recruits field interviewers across Great Britain, by area, when it needs to fill gaps in coverage. Vacancies cluster where the existing field force is thin, so a post may appear for one county and not the next. In Northern Ireland, household surveys are run by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, which recruits its own interviewers.

Set a Civil Service Jobs alert for “field interviewer” with your home area, as adverts are usually tied to a specific patch and close quickly once enough applications arrive.