A.         Introduction

Considering the importance of availability of labour force data at more frequent time intervals, National Statistical Office (NSO) launched Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) in April 2017.

The objective of PLFS is primarily twofold:

• to estimate the key employment and unemployment indicators (viz. Worker Population Ratio, Labour Force Participation Rate, Unemployment Rate) in the short time interval of three months for the urban areas only in the ‘Current Weekly Status’ (CWS).
• to estimate employment and unemployment indicators in both ‘Usual Status’ (ps+ss) and CWS in both rural and urban areas annually.

On the basis of the data collected in PLFS, four Annual Reports of PLFS corresponding to the periods July 2017 - June 2018, July 2018 - June 2019, July 2019 - June 2020 and July 2020 - June 2021 covering both rural and urban areas giving estimates of all important parameters of employment and unemployment in both usual status (ps+ss) and current weekly status (CWS) have been released.

Besides these Annual Reports, fifteen Quarterly Bulletins of PLFS corresponding to the quarter ending December 2018 to quarter ending June 2022 have already been released. In these quarterly bulletins estimates of labour force indicators, viz., Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), Worker population ratio (WPR), Unemployment Rate (UR), distribution of workers by broad status in employment and industry of work in the Current Weekly Status (CWS) for urban areas have been presented.

The present Quarterly Bulletin is the sixteenth in the series for the quarter July – September 2022.

PLFS fieldwork during COVID-19 pandemic

The field work for collection of information in respect of the samples allotted for the quarter July - September, 2022 was completed by 02.10.2022 for the first visit samples and by 30.09.2022 for revisit samples.

Canvassing of revisit schedules is continued to be undertaken in telephonic mode, since June 2020, as per actual reference periods of the samples. The telephonic mode was initially adopted in order to minimize the physical interaction with informants so as to contain spread of COVID-19 virus and to cope up with pandemic related restrictions. For about 96.24% of the revisit schedules for the period July - September, 2022, information was collected over the telephone.

These aspects may be kept in mind while using the estimates of PLFS for the concerned quarters.

B.         Sample Design of PLFS

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, in the beginning with ‘First Visit Schedule’ and thrice periodically later with a ‘Revisit Schedule’. The scheme of rotation ensures that 75% of the first-stage sampling units (FSUs)[1] are matched between two consecutive visits.

C.         Sample Size

At the all-India level, in the urban areas, a total number of 5,669 FSUs (UFS blocks) have been surveyed during the quarter July – September 2022. The number of urban households surveyed was 44,358 and number of persons surveyed was 1,71,225 in urban areas.

1. Conceptual Framework of Key Employment and Unemployment Indicators for the Quarterly Bulletin: The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) gives estimates of Key employment and unemployment Indicators like the Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR), Unemployment Rate (UR), etc. These indicators, and ‘Current Weekly Status’ are defined as follows:

1. Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR): LFPR is defined as the percentage of persons in labour force (i.e. working or seeking or available for work) in the population.

2. Worker Population Ratio (WPR): WPR is defined as the percentage of employed persons in the population.

3. Unemployment Rate (UR): UR is defined as the percentage of persons unemployed among the persons in the labour force.

4. Current Weekly Status (CWS): The activity status determined on the basis of a reference period of last 7 days preceding the date of survey is known as the current weekly status (CWS) of the person.

2. The Quarterly Bulletin for the quarter July – September 2022 is available at the website of the Ministry (https://mospi.gov.in). The key results are given in the statements annexed.

Annexure

Key Findings of PLFS, Quarterly Bulletin (July – September 2022)

 

 

 

 

 

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DS/VJ

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