Lok Sabha Question No. 1658 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-07-30
Subject: Revamp PLFS
Ministry: STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION
Asked by: Shri V K Sreekandan

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1658 TO BE ANSWERED ON 30.07.2025

## REVAMP PLFS

## 1658. SHRI V K SREEKANDAN:

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

- (a) whether it is a fact that the Government has decided to revamp the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) to include employment and  unemployment  data  from  rural  areas  too  and  if  so,  the details thereof;
- (b) whether it is also true that the coverage of the Periodic Labour Force Survey will be enhanced and the sampling design revamp will  address  the  requirement  for  high  frequency  labour  market indicators and if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether it is a fact that twelve households will be surveyed from each of the selected First Stage Units, if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether it is true that the enhanced sample size is expected to provide  reliable  estimates  of  labour  market  indicators  with improved precision; and
- (e) if so, the details thereof

## 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 (e): National Statistics Office (NSO) under 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.  Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR) and Unemployment Rate (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.

A total of 12 households will be surveyed from each of the selected FSUs which implies an overall sample size of around (22,692 x 12) = 2,72,304  households.  This  marks  a  2.65  time  increase  in  sample households  to  be  covered  in  PLFS  as  compared  to  the  number  of sample households covered upto December, 2024 (which was around

1,02,400). The enhanced sample size is expected to provide reliable estimates of labour market indicators with improved precision.

From Monthly Bulletins of PLFS for the months of April, May and June of 2025, estimates of Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), Worker population  Ratio  (WPR)  and  Unemployment  Rate  (UR)  in  Current Weekly Status for persons of age 15 years and above are given below in Table 1:

| Table (1): LFPR, WPR and UR (all in %) according to current weekly status (CWS) from PLFS for persons of age 15 years and above all-India   | Table (1): LFPR, WPR and UR (all in %) according to current weekly status (CWS) from PLFS for persons of age 15 years and above all-India   | Table (1): LFPR, WPR and UR (all in %) according to current weekly status (CWS) from PLFS for persons of age 15 years and above all-India   | Table (1): LFPR, WPR and UR (all in %) according to current weekly status (CWS) from PLFS for persons of age 15 years and above all-India   |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| survey month                                                                                                                                | Labour Force Indicators (in percent) in usual status (ps+ss) for persons of age 15 years and above                                          | Labour Force Indicators (in percent) in usual status (ps+ss) for persons of age 15 years and above                                          | Labour Force Indicators (in percent) in usual status (ps+ss) for persons of age 15 years and above                                          |
|                                                                                                                                             | LFPR in CWS                                                                                                                                 | WPR in CWS                                                                                                                                  | UR in CWS                                                                                                                                   |
| April 2025                                                                                                                                  | 55.6                                                                                                                                        | 52.8                                                                                                                                        | 5.1                                                                                                                                         |
| May 2025                                                                                                                                    | 54.8                                                                                                                                        | 51.7                                                                                                                                        | 5.6                                                                                                                                         |
| June 2025                                                                                                                                   | 54.2                                                                                                                                        | 51.2                                                                                                                                        | 5.6                                                                                                                                         |
| Source: Monthly Bulletin, PLFS, June, 2025                                                                                                  | Source: Monthly Bulletin, PLFS, June, 2025                                                                                                  | Source: Monthly Bulletin, PLFS, June, 2025                                                                                                  | Source: Monthly Bulletin, PLFS, June, 2025                                                                                                  |

Relative Standard Error (RSE) (%) of LFPR, WPR and UR estimates in CWS for persons aged 15 years and above are given below in Table 2:

| Table (2): RSE of LFPR, WPR and UR (all in %) according to current weekly status (CWS) from PLFS for persons of age 15 years and above all-India   | Table (2): RSE of LFPR, WPR and UR (all in %) according to current weekly status (CWS) from PLFS for persons of age 15 years and above all-India   | Table (2): RSE of LFPR, WPR and UR (all in %) according to current weekly status (CWS) from PLFS for persons of age 15 years and above all-India   | Table (2): RSE of LFPR, WPR and UR (all in %) according to current weekly status (CWS) from PLFS for persons of age 15 years and above all-India   |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| survey                                                                                                                                             | RSE of Labour Force Indicators (in percent) in usual status (ps+ss) for persons of age 15 years and above                                          | RSE of Labour Force Indicators (in percent) in usual status (ps+ss) for persons of age 15 years and above                                          | RSE of Labour Force Indicators (in percent) in usual status (ps+ss) for persons of age 15 years and above                                          |
| month                                                                                                                                              | RSE of LFPR in CWS                                                                                                                                 | RSE of WPR in CWS                                                                                                                                  | RSE of UR in CWS                                                                                                                                   |
| April 2025                                                                                                                                         | 0.31                                                                                                                                               | 0.34                                                                                                                                               | 1.95                                                                                                                                               |
| May 2025                                                                                                                                           | 0.31                                                                                                                                               | 0.34                                                                                                                                               | 1.83                                                                                                                                               |
| June 2025                                                                                                                                          | 0.31                                                                                                                                               | 0.33                                                                                                                                               | 1.91                                                                                                                                               |
| Source: Monthly Bulletin, PLFS, June, 2025                                                                                                         | Source: Monthly Bulletin, PLFS, June, 2025                                                                                                         | Source: Monthly Bulletin, PLFS, June, 2025                                                                                                         | Source: Monthly Bulletin, PLFS, June, 2025                                                                                                         |

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