Lok Sabha Question No. 709 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-06-26
Subject: Periodic Labour Force Survey
Ministry: STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION
Asked by: Gajanan Chandrakant Kirtikar, Sudheer Gupta, K. Muraleedharan, Bidyut Baran Mahato

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 709

TO BE ANSWERED ON 26.06.2019

## PERIODIC LABOUR FORCE SURVEY

709.  SHRI GAJANAN KIRTIKAR: SHRI SUDHEER GUPTA: SHRI K. MURALEEDHARAN: SHRI BIDYUT BARAN MAHATO:

Will the Minister of STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION be pleased to state:

- (a) whether Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) report released  by  NSSO  is  seen  as  new  series  for  measuring employment and unemployment on annual basis;
- (b) if  so,  the  details  thereof along with the corrective measure taken/being taken by the Government in this regard;
- (c) the  methodology  adopted  by  the  PLFS  for  the  said  survey report;
- (d) whether unemployment rate among urban workforce, including  men  and  women  is  higher  as  compared  to  rural workforce; and
- (e) if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor along with the corrective measures taken/being taken by the Government in this regard;

## ANSWER

MINISTER  OF  STATE  (INDEPENDENT  CHARGE)  OF  THE  MINISTRY OF STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION AND MINISTER  OF  STATE  (INDEPENDENT  CHARGE)  OF  THE  MINISTRY OF PLANNING [RAO INDERJIT SINGH]

- (a)  &  (b):  This  Ministry  has  launched  a  new  regular  employmentunemployment survey, namely, Periodic Labour Force Survey (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.

(c):  The  methodology  adopted  for  the  PLFS  report  is  given  in  the statement at Annexure.

(d)  &  (e):  The  unemployment  rates  in  usual  status  separately  for males  and  females  in  rural  and  urban  areas  as  per  the  Annual Report on PLFS (July, 2017- June, 2018) are as under:

| all-India   |      |        |
|-------------|------|--------|
| Sector      | male | female |
| Rural       | 5.8  | 3.8    |
| Urban       | 7.1  | 10.8   |

Government has taken various steps for generating employment in the country  like  encouraging  private  sector  of  economy,  fast tracking various projects involving substantial  investment  and increasing  public  expenditure  on  schemes  like  Prime  Minister's Employment  Generation  Programme  (PMEGP)  run  by  Ministry  of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA), Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) scheme run by Ministry  of  Rural  Development  and  Deendayal  Antyodaya  YojanaNational Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) run by Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs. The Government  has  also recently constituted Cabinet Committee on Employment & Skill Development among others.

*****

## Statement referred to in reply to part (c) of Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 709 for 26.06.2019

*****

## 1. Sampling design

- a) Frame  for  PLFS  (2017-18):  The  list  of  latest  available  Urban Frame Survey (UFS) blocks was the sampling frame for urban areas.  For  nearly  one-half  of  the  towns,  UFS  frame  2012-17 was used and for another half of the towns, UFS frame 2007-12 was used. List of 2011 Population Census villages (Panchayat wards for Kerala) constituted the rural sampling frame.
- b) Sampling design for PLFS: A stratified multi-stage design was adopted.  The  first  stage  units  (FSU)  were  the  Urban  Frame Survey  (UFS)  blocks  in  urban  areas  and  2011  Population Census  villages  (Panchayat  wards  for  Kerala)  in  rural  areas. The ultimate stage units (USU) were households. As in usual NSS rounds, in the case of large FSUs one intermediate stage unit, called hamlet group/sub-block, was formed.
- c) 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 - first time with first visit schedule and other three times with revisit schedule. For  rural  areas,  in  each  quarter,  only  25%  FSUs  of  annual allocation (as is done in each sub-round of NSS rounds) were covered so that independent estimates can be generated for each quarter. There was no revisit for the rural samples.

## 2. Stratification and Sub-stratification

- a) Stratification  for  first  stage  units  in  PLFS:  In  urban  areas strata were formed within each NSS region on the basis of size class of towns as per Population Census 2011.

| stratum 1 :           | all towns with population less than 50,000                       |
|-----------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------|
| stratum 2 :           | all towns with population 50,000 or more but less than 3 lakhs   |
| stratum 3 :           | all towns with population 3 lakhs or more but less than 15 lakhs |
| stratum 4, 5, 6,... : | each city with population 15 lakhs or more                       |

The rural areas of each NSS region constituted rural stratum.

## b) Sub-Stratification in PLFS:

- i) Urban: In urban areas there was no sub-stratification.
2. ii) Rural: 'r/8' sub-strata were formed in each rural stratum, if  'r'  was  the  annual  sample  size  allocated  for  a  rural stratum. The villages within a stratum as per frame were first arranged in ascending order of population. Then substrata 1 to 'r/8' were demarcated in such a way that each sub-stratum comprised a group of villages of the arranged frame and had more or less equal population.

## 3. Sample Size and sample selection

- a) Sample size  for  PLFS:  A  total  number  of  12,800  FSUs  (7,024 villages and 5,776 UFS blocks) was allotted for the survey at the all-India level during July 2017- June 2018.
- b) Selection  of  first  stage  units  in  PLFS:  Urban  FSUs  were selected by probability proportional to size with replacement (PPSWR) scheme, size being the number of households in the UFS  block.  Samples  for  a  panel  within  each  stratum  were drawn  in the form of two independent sub-samples. To implement the rotational scheme, 4 groups of sample FSUs of equal size (each multiple of size 2, half for each of sub-sample 1 and sub-sample 2) were drawn randomly. In the rural areas, samples for a stratum/sub-stratum were drawn randomly in the form of two independent sub-samples with probability proportional  to  size  with  replacement  (PPSWR)  scheme,  size being the population of the village.

## c) Second stage strata formation in PLFS:

|                                                                                   |       |                   | number of households to be surveyed     | number of households to be surveyed   |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------|-------------------|-----------------------------------------|---------------------------------------|
| composition of SSS (rural)                                                        | SSS   | number of members | FSU without hamlet group (hg) formation | FSU with hg formation (for each hg)   |
| number of members in                                                              | SSS 1 | 2 or more         | 2                                       | 1                                     |
| the household having                                                              | SSS 2 | 1                 | 4                                       | 2                                     |
| level of general education as secondary (10 th standard) or above                 | SSS 3 | 0                 | 2                                       | 1                                     |
| TOTAL                                                                             | TOTAL | TOTAL             | 8                                       | 8                                     |
| composition of SSS (urban)                                                        |       | number of         | number of households to be surveyed     | number of households to be surveyed   |
|                                                                                   | SSS   | members           | FSU without sub-block (sb) formation    | FSU with sb formation (for each sb)   |
| number of members in the household having level of general education as secondary | SSS 1 | 3 or more         | 2                                       | 1                                     |
|                                                                                   | SSS 2 | 2                 | 2                                       | 1                                     |
|                                                                                   | SSS 3 | 1                 | 2                                       | 1                                     |
| (10 th standard) or above                                                         | SSS 4 | 0                 | 2                                       | 1                                     |
| TOTAL                                                                             | TOTAL | TOTAL             | 8                                       | 8                                     |