Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation has launched a new regular employment-unemployment survey, namely, Periodic Labour Force Survey 2017-18 (PLFS) during April, 2017 with certain changes in survey methodology, data collection mechanism and sampling design vis-à-vis the earlier quinquennial (once in every five years) Employment and Unemployment surveys of NSSO. The PLFS has been launched with an objective of measuring quarterly changes of various labour market statistical indicators in urban areas as well as generating annual estimates of these indicators both for rural and urban areas, which can be used for policy making.
Objectives of Periodic Labour Force Survey
The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) was designed with two major objectives for measurement of employment and unemployment:
- The first was to measure the dynamics in labour force participation and employment status in the short time interval of three months for only the urban areas in the Current Weekly Status (CWS).
- Secondly, for both rural and urban areas, to measure the labour force estimates on key parameters in both usual status (ps+ss) and CWS.
Highlights of Periodic Labour Force Survey 2017-18
The survey was spread over 12,773 First Stage Units or FSUs (7,014 villages and 5,759 urban blocks) covering 1,02,113 households (56,108 in rural areas and 46,005 in urban areas) and enumerating 4,33,339 persons (2,46,809 in rural areas and 1,86,530 in urban areas). A rotational panel sampling design was 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 revisit schedule. There was no revisit in the rural samples. The estimates of household and population, labour force, workforce and unemployment presented here are based on data collected in the Schedules of first visit in both rural and urban areas.
Some of the key results at the all-India level for the period July 2017 – June 2018 emerging from Periodic Labour Force Survey 2017-18 are highlighted below.
- Household and Population
- About 70.7 per cent of the persons in India belonged to rural areas.
- The average household size in India was about 4.2. It was about 4.3 in rural India and about 3.9 in urban India.
- he sex ratio (number of females per 1000 males) in India was 956. It was 952 in rural India and 965 in urban India.
- n India, literacy rate (among persons of age 7 years and above) during 2017-18 was 76.9 per cent.
- Labour Force
About 54.9 per cent of the rural males, 18.2 per cent of the rural females, 57 per cent of the urban males and 15.9 per cent of the urban females were in the labour force in usual status.
- Workforce
- Worker Population Ratio (WPR)
- The Worker Population Ratio (WPR) in usual status (ps+ss) was about 34.7 per cent at the all-India level. It was about 35 per cent in rural areas and 33.9 per cent in urban areas.
- The WPR in usual status (ps+ss) was 51.7 per cent for rural males, 17.5 per cent for rural females, 53 per cent for urban males and 14.2 per cent for urban females.
- Earnings from employment, hours worked and hours available for additional work
- Information on earnings from employment was collected for all the three categories of workers, viz., self-employed persons, regular wage/salaried employees and casual labour. For regular wage/salaried persons in current weekly status information on earnings was collected for preceding calendar month, for self-employed persons in current weekly status information on earnings was collected for the last 30 days and for casual labour information on earnings was collected for each day of the reference week.
- Hours actually worked during the reference week by the workers in current weekly status (CWS): In rural areas, in a week, a worker in CWS actually worked on an average nearly 48 hours during July 2017 to June 2018 and in urban areas they worked for 56 hours, in a week, during this period.
- Hours available for additional work by the workers in current weekly status (CWS) : In rural areas, during July – September 2017, nearly 10.7 per cent of the workers in CWS reported that they were available for additional work. The percentage of workers in CWS reporting that they were available for additional work showed a decreasing trend over the survey period (July 2017- June 2018) and during April – June 2018, nearly 4.6 per cent of the workers in CWS reported that they were available for additional work.
- Unemployment Rate
- In the usual status (ps+ss), unemployment rate was 5.8 per cent among males and 3.8 per cent among females in rural areas, while the rates were 7.1 per cent among males and 10.8 per cent among females in urban areas.
- n CWS, the unemployment rate was 8.8 per cent among males and was 7.7 per cent among females in rural areas while the rates were 8.8 per cent among males and 12.8 per cent among females in urban areas.
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