How is NSO Revamping the Periodic Labour Force Survey to Include Rural Areas?

New Delhi, May 14 (NationPress) The National Statistics Office (NSO) revealed on Wednesday that it has overhauled the sampling design of the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) starting January 2025. This change aims to meet the demand for high-frequency labour market indicators while expanding coverage to include rural areas.

The redesigned PLFS is set to estimate crucial employment and unemployment metrics, such as Labour Force Participation Rate, Worker Population Ratio, and Unemployment Rate, on a monthly basis for both rural and urban regions across the nation in the Current Weekly Status (CWS).

The Usual Status and CWS frameworks help determine the activity status of individuals surveyed, based on the last 365 days and the last seven days leading up to the survey date, respectively.

With the revamped PLFS sample design, monthly estimates of key labour market indicators—Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR), and Unemployment Rate (UR)—will be generated at the all-India level using the CWS approach. These monthly estimates are anticipated to facilitate timely policy interventions. The initial monthly bulletin for April 2025 is expected to be released in May 2025, as per the NSO announcement.

Currently, the PLFS provides quarterly labour market indicators solely for urban areas. However, with the updated PLFS sample design, quarterly estimates of employment and unemployment indicators will be accessible for both rural and urban areas, covering the entire nation. The first quarterly bulletin for both areas for the period of April to June 2025 is scheduled for release in August 2025, according to the statement.

Beginning in 2025, the annual PLFS results will be reported based on the calendar year, covering the survey period from January to December (e.g., January 2025 to December 2025). This alteration in the dissemination of annual results and unit-level data will enable a thorough analysis of labour market performance through the evaluation of key employment-unemployment metrics and assist in the timely updating of India’s labour market statistics in databases maintained by international agencies.

The methodology for sampling in the PLFS has been revised to achieve the goal of releasing high-frequency labour force indicators.

In the updated PLFS sample design, a larger total sample size of 22,692 FSUs is planned to be surveyed each year over a two-year panel (with 12,504 FSUs in rural areas and 10,188 FSUs in urban areas), compared to 12,800 FSUs surveyed in the PLFS until December 2024.

A total of 12 households will be surveyed from each selected FSU, resulting in an overall sample size of approximately (22,692 x 12) = 272,304 households. This signifies a 2.65-fold increase in sample households covered by the PLFS compared to the number covered up to December 2024 (approximately 102,400). The enhanced sample size is expected to yield more reliable estimates of labour market indicators with improved accuracy.

The updated PLFS sample design now considers the district as the primary geographical unit, termed basic stratum, within each state/UT for both rural and urban sectors for selecting FSUs in most areas. In other regions, the NSS region serves as the basic stratum. This adjustment ensures a representative sample from most districts, enhancing the quality of the estimates produced.

For rural regions, stratification has been implemented within the district/NSS region (as applicable) according to the distance of villages within 5 km from the district headquarters or from a city/town with a population exceeding 500,000. For urban areas, million-plus cities within the district/NSS region have been designated as a stratum. This approach will further enhance the reliability of estimates by incorporating sample observations from diverse spatial segments with varying labour market dynamics, as stated.