Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS)

About Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS):

• Considering the importance of availability of labour force data at more frequent time intervals, the National Statistical Office (NSO) launched the Periodic Labour Force Survey in April 2017.
• Objective:
  • To estimate the key employment and unemployment indicators (viz. Worker Population Ratio, Labour Force Participation Rate, Unemployment Rate) in the short time interval of three months for the urban areas only in the ‘Current Weekly Status’ (CWS).
  • To estimate employment and unemployment indicators in both ‘Usual Status’ (ps+ss) and CWS in both rural and urban areas annually.
• The indicators of this survey are defined as follows:
  • Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR): LFPR is defined as the percentage of persons in labour force (i.e. working or seeking or available for work) in the population.
  • Worker Population Ratio (WPR): WPR is defined as the percentage of employed persons in the population.
  • Unemployment Rate (UR): UR is defined as the percentage of persons unemployed among the persons in the labour force.
  • Current Weekly Status (CWS): The activity status determined on the basis of a reference period of last 7 days preceding the date of survey is known as the current weekly status (CWS) of the person.
• This survey is conducted by the National Sample Survey (NSO), working under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).

Key Findings:

• Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) for persons of age 15 years and above was 60.1%. The same for male and female was 78.8% and 41.7% respectively.
• Worker Population Ratio (WPR) for persons of age 15 years and above was 58.2%. The same for male and female was 76.3% and 40.3% respectively.
• Unemployment Rate (UR) was 3.2% for both male and females of age 15 years and above.
  • Unemployment Rate for male has shown a marginal decline from 3.3% during July 2022 – June 2023 to 3.2% during July 2023 – June 2024, among females it has increased from 2.9% to 3.2% during the same time span.

Q1: What is the National Sample Survey?

It is a large-scale survey conducted by the Indian government to collect data on various socioeconomic aspects of the country's population. It is one of the most comprehensive and reliable sources of data for understanding the living conditions, consumption patterns, employment, and other important characteristics of the Indian population.

Source: Unemployment rate stagnant, reveals government survey - The Hindu