India’s unemployment rate for persons aged 15 and above has fallen to a six-year low of 3.2%, according to the Periodic Labor Force Survey Annual Report 2022-2023 released by the National Sample Survey Office. This significant decline in unemployment means a positive trend in employment opportunities within the country.Recognizing the importance of availability of labor force data at more regular intervals, the National Statistical Office launched the Periodic Labor Force Survey in April 2017.
PLFS has two main objectives
- To estimate key employment and unemployment indicators (i.e. worker-population ratio, labor force participation rate, unemployment rate) at short-term intervals of three months for urban areas only in the Current Weekly Status (CWS).
- To estimate employment and unemployment indicators in both normal situation (PS+SS) and CEDBURO S in both rural and urban areas every year.
Three annual reports covering both rural and urban areas have been released giving estimates of all important parameters of employment and unemployment both in normal position (PS + SS) and current weekly position (CWS). These five-year reports have been prepared based on data collected by PLFS during July 2017-June 2018, July 2018-June 2019, July 2019-June 2020, July 2020-June 2021 and July 2021-June 2022.
Sample Design of PLFS
- A rotational panel sampling design has been used in urban areas. In this rotational panel scheme, each selected household in urban areas is visited four times, initially with the ‘first visit programme’ and three times with the ‘re-visit programme’ from time to time.
- In the urban area, a panel sample was drawn as two independent sub-samples within each stratum. The rotation scheme ensures that 75% of the first phase sampling units (FSUs) are matched between two consecutive visits.
- There was no review in rural samples. For rural areas, in each quarter of the survey period, 25% of the FSUs of the annual allocation were covered.
Sampling method
- Sample size for first visit in rural and urban areas during July 2022-June 2023 for Annual Report
- Out of the total number of 12,800 FSUs (7,024 villages and 5,776 UFS Blocks) allotted for the survey at all India level during July 2022- June 2023, a total of 12,714 FSUs (6,982 villages and 5,732 urban blocks) have been proposed for promotion of PLFS Schedule (Schedule 10.4). ) was surveyed.
- The number of households surveyed was 1,01,655 (55,844 in rural areas and 45,811 in urban areas) and the number of individuals surveyed was 4,19,512 (2,43,971 in rural areas and 1,75,541 in urban areas).
- The total number of persons aged 15 years and above surveyed was 3,20,260 (1,81,049 in rural areas and 1,39,211 in urban areas).
Conceptual Framework for Key Employment and Unemployment Indicators
- The Periodic Labor Force Survey (PLFS) gives estimates of key employment and unemployment indicators, such as Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR), Unemployment Rate (UR), etc. .These indicators, and ‘General Situation’ and ‘Current Weekly Situation’ are defined as:
- Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR): LFPR is defined as the percentage of individuals in the labor force (i.e. working or looking for work or available) 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 unemployed persons among persons in the labor force.
Activity Status- Normal Status
- An individual’s activity status is determined based on the activities performed by the individual during a specified reference period. When the activity status is determined based on the reference period of the last 365 days before the date of the survey, it is known as the usual activity status of the individual.
Current Weekly Status (CWS)
- The activity status determined based on the reference period of the last 7 days before the date of survey is known as the individual’s current weekly status (CWS).