A.         Introduction

Considering the importance of availability of labour force data at more frequent time intervals, National Statistical Office (NSO) launched Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) in April 2017.

The objective of PLFS is primarily twofold:

• 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 first Annual Report (July 2017- June 2018) covering both rural and urban areas giving estimates of all important parameters of employment and unemployment in both usual status (ps+ss) and current weekly status (CWS) was released in May 2019 and the second Annual Report ( July 2018 – June 2019) was released inJune 2020. Now the third Annual Report is being brought out by NSO on the basis of Periodic Labour Force Survey conducted during July 2019-June 2020.

B.         Sample Design of PLFS

1. 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, in the beginning with ‘First Visit Schedule’ and thrice periodically later with a ‘Revisit Schedule’. In urban area, samples for a panel within each stratum were drawn in the form of two independent sub-samples. The scheme of rotation ensures that 75% of the first-stage sampling units (FSUs)[1] are matched between two consecutive visits. There was no revisit in the rural samples. For rural areas, samples for a stratum/sub-stratum were drawn randomly in the form of two independent sub-samples. For rural areas, in each quarter of the survey period, 25% FSUs of annual allocation were covered.

C.         Sampling method

2. Sample Size for First Visit during July 2019- June 2020 in rural and urban areas for the Annual Report:Out of the total number of 12,800 FSUs (7,024 villages and 5,776 UFS blocks) allotted for the survey at the all-India level during July 2019- June 2020, a total of 12,569 FSUs (6,913 villages and 5,656 urban blocks) could be surveyed for canvassing the PLFS Schedule. The number of households surveyed was 1,00,480 (55,291 in rural areas and 45,189 in urban areas) and number of persons surveyed was 4,18,297 (2,40,231 in rural areas and 1,78,066 in urban areas).

3. Conceptual Framework of Key Employment and Unemployment Indicators: The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) gives estimates of Key employment and unemployment Indicators like theLabour Force Participation Rates (LFPR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR),  Unemployment Rate (UR), etc. These indicators, and the ‘Usual Status’ and ‘Current Weekly Status’ are defined as follows:

1. Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR): LFPR is defined as the percentage ofpersons in labour force (i.e. working or seeking or available for work)in the population.

2. Worker Population Ratio (WPR): WPR is defined as the percentage of employed personsin the population.

3. Unemployment Rate (UR): UR is defined as the percentage of persons unemployedamong the persons in the labour force.

4. Activity Status- Usual Status: The activity status of a person is determined on the basis of the activities pursued by the person during the specified reference period. When the activity status is determined on the basis of the reference period of last 365 days preceding the date of survey, it is known as the usual activity status of the person.

5. Activity Status- 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.

4. The Annual Report on PLFS 2019-20 is available at this Ministry’s website (https://mospi.gov.in). The key results are given in the statements annexed.