Periodic Labour Force Survey

• The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) was released recently.
• This national survey processed details from 5,639 first-stage sampling units (FSUs) and 1,67,916 people from 44,190 urban houses.

MAJOR FINDINGS

• It has reported that the unemployment rate in the country has shown a decrease between April and June 2023.
• Similarly, the Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) for persons of age 15 years and above and the Worker-Population Ratio (WPR) have also improved during the period.
• The LFPR in urban areas increased from 47.5% in April-June 2022 to 48.8% in April-June 2023 for persons of age 15 years and above.

ABOUT PLFS

• PLFS is carried out by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) under Ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MoSPI).
• It was launched 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 CWS.
  • To estimate employment and unemployment indicators in both usual Status and CWS in both rural and urban areas annually.

IMPORTANT DEFINITIONS

• Labour Force: The Labour force, according to Current Weekly Status (CWS), is the number of persons either employed or unemployed on an average in a week preceding the date of the survey.
• Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR)- Percentage of persons in the 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: The unemployment rate is defined as the percentage of unemployed persons in the labour force.
• Current Weekly Status(CWS) Approach: The urban unemployment PLFS is based on the CWS approach.
  • Under CWS, a person is considered unemployed if he/she did not work even for one hour on any day during the week but sought or was available for work at least for one hour on any day during the period.