Lok Sabha Question No. 2855 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-08-06
Subject: Changes in Periodic Labour Force Survey from 2025
Ministry: STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION
Asked by: Shri Bibhu Prasad Tarai, Shri Balabhadra Majhi

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2855 TO BE ANSWERED ON 06.08.2025

## CHANGES IN PERIODIC LABOUR FORCE SURVEY FROM 2025

2855.  SHRI BIBHU PRASAD TARA: SHRI BALABHADRA MAJHI:

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

- (a) the details of the plans to address  the challenge  of data comparability  between  the  old  and  new  Periodic  Labour  Force Survey (PLFS) frameworks post-January 2025;
- (b) whether the revamped PLFS enables monthly labour force indicators for timely policy interventions; and
- (c) if  so, the details thereof including the measures taken to ensure their credibility, timeliness and accessibility to States and other relevant policy making bodies?

## ANSWER

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

- (a) to (c): National  Statistics Office (NSO)  under  the  Ministry  of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has been conducting Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) since 2017 to estimate various  indicators  related  to  employment  and  unemployment  in  the country. The sampling design of Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) has been revamped from January 2025 to address the requirement of high frequency labour market indicators with enhanced coverage from PLFS.  The  revamped  PLFS  is  envisaged  to  address  the  following objectives:
-  to  estimate  the  key  employment  and  unemployment  indicators (viz.  Labour  Force  Participation  Rate,  Worker  Population  Ratio, Unemployment  Rate)  on  a  monthly  basis  for  rural  and  urban areas at all-India level in the Current Weekly Status (CWS).
-  to extend the coverage of the Quarterly results of PLFS to rural areas and thereby producing quarterly estimates at the country level and for major States in the Current Weekly Status (CWS) .
-  to estimate important employment and unemployment indicators in  both  usual  status  (ps+ss)  and  CWS  in  both  rural  and  urban areas annually.

The revamped PLFS sample design from January 2025 results in the following updation in the PLFS dissemination:

-  Availability of monthly estimates of key labour market indicators at  the  country  level:  The  revamped  PLFS  sample  design  will  enable generation of the monthly estimates of key labour market indicators viz.  LFPR,  WPR  and  UR  at  the  all-India  level  following  the  Current Weekly  Status  (CWS)  approach.  The  monthly  estimates  will  help  in timely policy interventions.
-  Extending  quarterly  estimates  to  rural  areas:  Upto  December, 2024, PLFS provided quarterly labour market indicators for the urban areas  only.  With  the  updation  in  the  PLFS  sample  design  quarterly estimates  of  employment  unemployment  indicators  will  be  available for both rural and urban areas and hence for the entire country.
-  Enhanced sample size: The revamped PLFS sample design is a multistage  stratified  design.  List  of  census  2011  villages  /  urban Frame  Survey  (UFS)  blocks  /  sub-units  (for  those  villages  or  UFS blocks  where  sub-units  are  formed within)  together  formed  the sampling  frame  for  selection  of  the  First  Stage  Units  (FSUs).  In  the revamped PLFS sample design, a total sample size of 22,692 FSUs is planned to be surveyed (12,504 FSUs in the rural areas and 10,188 in the  urban  areas)  in  each  year  of  the  two-year  panel  with  first  visit schedule  as  compared  to  12,800  FSUs  surveyed  in PLFS  upto December, 2024. The number of households to be surveyed within a selected  geographical  unit  (FSU)  has  been  increased  from  8  to  12 households. The enhanced sample size is expected to provide reliable estimates of labour market indicators with improved precision.

In  addition,  some  changes  have  also  been  incorporated  in  the structure  of  the  Schedule  of  inquiry.  Users  of  PLFS  results  need  to consider the changes implemented in PLFS from January 2025 while comparing PLFS results with estimates released through PLFS publications  up  to  December,  2024.  The  results  of  the  PLFS  post January 2025 thus need to be understood and used in the context with which the sample selection methodology of PLFS has been designed. The monthly estimates of labour market indicators are released in the PLFS  monthly  bulletin  along  with  the  measures  of  error  due  to sampling in the form of Relative Standard Error (RSE). The RSE of the labour  market  indicators  released  till  date  at  the  all-India  level  has remained  within  acceptable  limits.  The  low  levels  of  RSE  of  the headline indicators brings forth the reliability of the estimates. The  Monthly  Bulletins  of  PLFS  for  the  months  April  2025,  May  2025 and June 2025 have been released following a predefined timeframe for release of the results and are made available on the website of the ministry  of  ease  access  of  users  at  large.  At  present  the  monthly results of PLFS disseminates labour market indicators at the country

level and do not have provision for bringing out State level estimates.

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