Lok Sabha Question No. 2819 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-12-17
Subject: Periodic Labour Force Survey 2025
Ministry: STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION
Asked by: Shri Ravindra Shukla Alias Ravi Kishan, Shri Haribhai Patel, Shri Ramesh Awasthi

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2819 TO BE ANSWERED ON 17.12.2025

## PERIODIC LABOUR FORCE SURVEY 2025

2819.

SHRI RAMESH AWASTHI:

SHRI HARIBHAI PATEL:

SHRI RAVINDRA SHUKLA ALIAS RAVI KISHAN:

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

- (a) the key labour market indicators drawn from the latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) conducted in November 2025;
- (b) whether  the  Government  has  taken  steps  to  improve  the  frequency, coverage and timely dissemination of PLFS data following the methodological modifications made in the year 2025;
- (c) if so, the details thereof;
- (d) the  significance  of  the  updated  National  Industrial  Classification  (NIC)2025 for future statistical surveys; and
- (e) the  manner  in  which  the  use  of  NIC-2025  is  likely  to  enhance  the accuracy, comparability and policy utility of labour market and economic statistics?

## 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): From the latest PLFS Monthly Bulletin for October 2025, the estimates of Labour  Force  Participation  Rate  (LFPR),  Worker  population  Ratio  (WPR)  and Unemployment Rate (UR) in Current Weekly Status (CWS) for rural, urban and rural+urban combined among male, female and person of age group 15 years and above at all-India level are given in the Table below:

LFPR, WPR and UR (in per cent) according to Current Weekly Status (CWS) for rural,  urban  and  rural+urban  sectors  among  male,  female  and  person  of  age group 15 years and above for October, 2025

| sector      | LFPR in CWS   | LFPR in CWS   | LFPR in CWS   | WPR in CWS   | WPR in CWS   | WPR in CWS   | UR in CWS   | UR in CWS   | UR in CWS   |
|-------------|---------------|---------------|---------------|--------------|--------------|--------------|-------------|-------------|-------------|
|             | male          | female        | person        | male         | female       | person       | male        | female      | Person      |
| (1)         | (2)           | (3)           | (4)           | (5)          | (6)          | (7)          | (8)         | (9)         | (10)        |
| rural       | 78.4          | 38.4          | 57.8          | 74.8         | 36.9         | 55.2         | 4.6         | 4.0         | 4.4         |
| urban       | 75.3          | 25.4          | 50.5          | 70.8         | 22.9         | 47.0         | 6.1         | 9.7         | 7.0         |
| rural+urban | 77.4          | 34.2          | 55.4          | 73.4         | 32.4         | 52.5         | 5.1         | 5.4         | 5.2         |

Source: Monthly Bulletin, PLFS, October, 2025

(b) and (c):  The  sampling  design  of  PLFS  has  been  revamped  from  January 2025  to  address  the  requirement  of  high  frequency  labour  market  indicators with  enhanced  coverage  from  PLFS.  Salient  aspects  of  the  change  in  the sampling methodology of PLFS are given below:

Frequency: The revamped PLFS sample design has enabled generation of 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 Bulletins for the months of April 2025 to October 2025 each have been released. Upto  December, 2024 PLFS provided quarterly labour market indicators for the urban areas only. In the revamped PLFS, quarterly estimates of employment-unemployment indicators are available for both rural and urban areas and hence for the entire country. Quarterly Bulletins for April-Jun 2025 and July-September 2025 have been released.

Coverage:  PLFS  covers  all  the  States/UTs  across  the  country.  In  the revamped PLFS sample design, district has been made the primary geographical unit, called basic stratum within a State/UT separately for rural and urban sectors for selecting FSUs for most part of the geography covered. In the remaining parts, NSS region has been made the basic stratum. This will ensure presence of sample observations from most of the districts in the PLFS sample, which will improve the representativeness of the estimates generated. Further,  sample  size  has  been  increased  to  22,692  First  Stage  Units  (FSUs -sample  villages/  urban  blocks/  sub-units)  from  12800  FSUs  surveyed  upto December 2024 and Sample households have also been increased from 8 to 12 households. The  enhanced  sample  size  is expected  to provide reliable estimates of labour market indicators with improved precision.

Timely Dissemination: The results of PLFS are being released in a timely manner as per the timelines prescribed in the Advance Release Calendar (ARC) available on the website of MoSPI.

(d) and (e):  The ongoing PLFS is being carried out as per NIC 2008. MoSPI has released the NIC 2025 recently in the month of November 2025. The NIC 2025 introduces a new 6-digit coding structure, in place of the 5-digit structure of NIC 2008 and represents the latest updated national standard for classifying economic activities in India which provides a comprehensive and contemporary  framework  for  all  economic  activities,  capturing  the  rapid transformation  of  Indian  economy  driven  by  technological  advancement, innovation, and the emergence of new sectors. This enables better representation of emerging activities and enhancement of accuracy, comparability and policy utility of labour market and economic statistics.

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