Why in News : On Friday, the government released the latest annual report of the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS). The data was for the 12 months (or four quarters) between July 2019 and June 2020
- The Report has been been released by National Statistical Office (NSO)
- Labour indicators recorded an all-round improvement in 2019-20 compared with the previous two years i:e 2017-18 and 2018-19.
Key Rate as per Report :
Unemployment Rate:
- The unemployment rate fell to 4.8% in 2019-20. In 2018-19, it stood at 5.8% and 6.1% in 2017-18.
Worker Population Rate:
- It improved to 38.2% in 2019-20 compared with 35.3% in 2018-19 and 34.7% in 2017-18.
Labour Force Participation Ratio:
- It increased to 40.1% in 2019-20 from 37.5% and 36.9%, respectively, in the last two years. The higher the LFPR, the better.
Gender Based Unemployment Rate:
- The data showed the jobless rate for both male and female fell to 5.1% and 4.2%, respectively, in 2019-20 from 6% and 5.2% in 2018-19.
WPR and LFPR also comparatively improved during the year.
- Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) = 40.1%
- Worker Population Ratio = 38.2%
Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS)
PLFS is India’s first computer-based survey launched by the National Statistical Office (NSO) in 2017.
It has been constituted based on the recommendation of a committee headed by Amitabh Kundu.
The first Annual Report (July 2017- June 2018) covering both rural and urban areas giving estimates of all important parameters of employment and unemployment was released in May 2019.
PLFS has two fold objective:
- 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 and CWS in both rural and urban areas annually.
Before PLFS, the NSSO (previous name of NSO) used to bring the data related to employment and unemployment based on its quinquennial (every 5 year) household socio-economic survey programme.
PLFS Key Terms
Unemployment Rate (UR) is defined as the percentage of persons unemployed among the persons in the labour force. (i.e. unemployed/Labour Force)
Worker Population Ratio (WPR) is defined as the percentage of employed persons in the population. (i.e. employed/Population)
Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) is defined as the percentage of population in the labour force. (i.e. labour force/Population)
Activity Status: The activity status of a person is determined on the basis of the activities pursued by the person during the specified reference period.
- Usual Status: The activity status determined on the basis of the reference period of the last 365 days preceding the date of survey, it is known as the usual activity status of the person.
- Current Weekly Status (CWS): The activity status determined on the basis of a reference period of the last 7 days preceding the date of survey is known as the current weekly status (CWS) of the person.
Source : IE
