Periodic Labour Force Survey

Also called: PLFS · Topic: Economic Data: Census, NSS, Surveys and Statistical Tools · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 4 "Human Capital Formation in India"; Class 11, Ch 6 "Employment: Growth, Informalisation and Other Issues"

Meaning

The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) is a sample survey that the National Statistics Office (NSO) started in April 2017. It measures how many people are working, looking for work or out of work in India. It reports three key rates:

• LFPR (Labour Force Participation Rate) = (Labour force ÷ Population) × 100 [3]
• WPR (Worker Population Ratio) = (Employed persons ÷ Population) × 100 [3]
• UR (Unemployment Rate) = (Unemployed persons ÷ Labour force) × 100 [3]

PLFS is India's main official source of job data. Its numbers are used in employment schemes, policy debates and GDP work. Since the 2025 revamp, it gives monthly estimates for rural and urban India together. Its quarterly estimates now also cover rural areas, and its annual reports now follow the calendar year [2].

Explanation

Origin and design

• Launched by NSO in April 2017. It was designed on the recommendations of the Amitabh Kundu committee.
• NSO works under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).
• What it replaced:
• the quinquennial NSS employment-unemployment rounds ("quinquennial" means once every five years; the last round was in 2011-12)

• the Labour Bureau's annual Employment-Unemployment Survey (EUS)

• Goal: to give labour data more often than once in five years [3].

• It is a sample survey, not a census.
• A census counts every person.
• PLFS asks a selected sample of households.

• The results are then scaled up to the whole country.

• Original two aims (2017-2024) [3]:

• Every quarter: LFPR, WPR and UR for urban areas only, using CWS.

• Every year: the full set of indicators for rural and urban areas, using both usual status and CWS.

• Seven annual reports used the July-June cycle (the agricultural year), from 2017-18 to 2023-24 [2].

Two ways of measuring activity

• Usual status (ps+ss) looks back 365 days from the survey date [3].
• Principal status (ps): the activity on which the person spent the most time in those 365 days. This is called the "major time criterion" [3].
• Subsidiary status (ss): any extra economic activity done for 30 days or more in the same 365 days [3].

• ps+ss counts a person as a worker if either status is "work". So it gives a larger count of workers.

• Current weekly status (CWS) looks back only 7 days from the survey date [3].

• It picks up short-term job loss and seasonal ups and downs.
• So the CWS unemployment rate is usually higher than the usual-status rate.

• Example: in calendar 2024, UR was 4.9% by CWS but 3.2% by usual status [3].

• Rotational panel: NSO visits the same households again on a fixed schedule. This lets it track how a household's job situation changes over time.

The three indicators and how they link

• Labour force = people who are working + people who are seeking or available for work.
• Link between the rates: WPR = LFPR × (1 − UR/100).
• Worked example (a village with 1,000 people aged 15 and above):
• 600 are working or looking for work → LFPR = 600 ÷ 1,000 = 60%
• 580 of them have work → WPR = 580 ÷ 1,000 = 58%
• 20 are unemployed → UR = 20 ÷ 600 = 3.33%

• Check: 60 × (1 − 0.0333) = 58 ✔

• What makes the UR rise or fall, and why a low UR can mislead:

• Suppose many women stop looking for work. They then leave the labour force.
• → The LFPR falls.
• → The UR does not rise, because only people who are in the labour force can be counted as unemployed.
• So a low UR can hide a weak job market.

The 2025 revamp

• Why: to get labour data more often, and with wider coverage [2].
• Monthly CWS estimates of LFPR, WPR and UR, for rural + urban areas, at the all-India level [2].
• Quarterly estimates now cover rural and urban areas. Earlier they covered urban only [2].
• Calendar-year reports:
• The survey cycle moved from July-June to January-December from 2025.

• This matches the international practice of reporting labour data by calendar year [2].

• Rotational panel in both rural and urban areas [2]:

• Each household is visited in four consecutive months.
• 75% of the sample is the same from one month to the next.

• 50% of the sample is the same from one quarter to the next.

• Districts are now the basic strata (the groups from which the sample is drawn). Earlier, NSS regions were used for most areas [2].

• A bigger sample [2]:
• Up to December 2024: about 12,800 FSUs × 8 households ≈ 1.02 lakh households. An FSU (First Stage Unit) is a village or an urban block.
• From January 2025: 22,692 FSUs × 12 households ≈ 2.72 lakh households. This is about 2.65 times larger.

In India

• Who runs it: the NSO, under MoSPI.
• Oversight: the National Statistical Commission (NSC) watches over the quality of official statistics.
• First calendar-year report: Annual Report 2025, released on 27 March 2026 [2].

• In January-December 2025, 2,70,472 households and 11,48,634 persons were surveyed on the first visit [2].

• Headline figures: usual status (ps+ss), age 15 and above

Indicator	2023-24 (July-June)	Calendar 2024	Calendar 2025
UR	3.2%	3.2% [3]	3.1% [2]
LFPR	60.1%	59.6% [3]	59.3% [2]
WPR	58.2%	57.7% [3]	57.4% [2]
Female LFPR	41.7%	40.3% [3]	40.0% [2]

• Other 2025 findings [2]:
• Male LFPR was 79.1%.
• Urban UR was 4.8%; rural UR was 2.4%.
• Youth UR (age 15-29) fell to 9.9% from 10.3% in 2024. Urban youth UR was 13.6%.
• Regular wage/salaried workers rose to 23.6% of all workers, from 22.4% in 2024.
• Self-employed workers fell to 56.2%, from 57.5% in 2024.
• Agriculture's share of jobs fell to 43.0% from 44.8% in 2024. Manufacturing's share rose to 12.1% from 11.6%.
• NEET (young people not in employment, education or training) was 21.0% for age 15-24 and 25.0% for age 15-29.

• About 61.6 crore people aged 15 and above were employed: 41.6 crore men and 20.0 crore women.

• CWS, calendar 2024: LFPR 56.2%, WPR 53.5%, UR 4.9% [3].

• Comparability warning: NSO says the 2025 estimates "may not be strictly comparable" with earlier PLFS reports, because the sample design changed [2].
• The 2017-18 controversy:
• A leaked report showed an unemployment rate of 6.1%. It was reported as "a 45-year high".
• Two NSC members resigned in January 2019 over the delay in releasing the report.

Don't confuse with

• Usual status vs CWS: usual status looks back 365 days, and CWS looks back 7 days. The CWS UR is usually higher (4.9% against 3.2% in 2024) [3].
• UR vs WPR/LFPR: the UR is divided by the labour force. LFPR and WPR are divided by the population.
• CMIE's CPHS (Consumer Pyramids Household Survey): a private household survey that uses different definitions and methods from PLFS, so its numbers often differ. PLFS is the official NSO survey.
• EPFO payroll data and ASUSE: EPFO counts new members of the Employees' Provident Fund and is only a proxy (an indirect sign) of formal jobs. ASUSE surveys enterprises, not households. PLFS surveys households and covers all kinds of work.

Prelims Hooks

• PLFS was launched by NSO (under MoSPI) in April 2017, on the Amitabh Kundu committee's recommendations. It replaced the quinquennial NSS employment-unemployment rounds (the last was in 2011-12).
• Usual status (ps+ss) uses a 365-day reference period. Subsidiary status needs 30 days or more of economic activity. CWS uses 7 days [3].
• Trap: UR = unemployed ÷ labour force, not ÷ population. LFPR and WPR use the population. WPR = LFPR × (1 − UR/100).
• From 2025: monthly CWS estimates (rural + urban). Quarterly estimates now include rural areas (they were urban-only before). Annual reports follow the January-December calendar year [2].
• 2025 revamp sample: 22,692 FSUs × 12 households ≈ 2.72 lakh households, about 2.65 times the earlier sample. Districts are now the basic strata [2].
• PLFS Annual Report 2025 (usual status, 15+): UR 3.1%, LFPR 59.3%, WPR 57.4%, female LFPR 40.0% [2].

Mains Points

• More frequent data vs comparable data:
• Monthly and quarterly data from the 2025 revamp help policy respond in real time.
• But NSO itself warns that 2025 figures are not strictly comparable with earlier years [2].

• So long-term trends, such as those since 2017-18, must be read with care.

• The headline UR hides the quality of work:

• The UR is low, at about 3%.
• But youth UR is 9.9%, urban youth UR is 13.6%, and NEET (15-29) is 25.0% [2].
• About 56% of workers are self-employed, and agriculture still holds 43% of jobs (2025) [2].
• Female LFPR is only 40.0% [2].

• Together, these point to underemployment (people working less, or earning less, than they could), not full employment. This matters for GS-III answers on jobs and inclusive growth.

• Trust in official statistics (GS-II/GS-III):

• The 2019 leak and the NSC resignations showed that data must be released on time and kept free from political pressure.
• Checking PLFS against CMIE and EPFO data can build confidence. But each source uses different definitions, so they will not match exactly.

Read more

• Employment and enterprise surveys: PLFS, ASI, ASUSE and the Economic Census