Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) – Quarterly Bulletin (January-March 2021)

What is the News?

The National Statistical Office (NSO) has released the quarterly bulletin of Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) for January-March 2021.

What is the Periodic Labour Force Survey(PLFS)?

The National Statistical Office(NSO) has launched Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) in April 2017. 

Objectives of PLFS: The objective of PLFS is primarily twofold:

• To estimate the key employment and unemployment indicators (viz. Worker Population Ratio(WPR), Labour Force Participation Rate(LFPR), Unemployment Rate(UER)) 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.

Click Here to read about LFPR, WPR and UER

What are the key findings of the survey?

Unemployment Rate

The unemployment rate in urban areas of the country for people of all ages has fallen to 9.4% in January-March,2021. This was the lowest since the nationwide lockdown was imposed in March 2020 but was higher than the pre-pandemic levels of 9.1%.

Among males, the unemployment rate in urban areas was 8.7% in January-March 2021. It was 9.5% in October-December 2020. 

Among females, the unemployment rate was 11.8%  in January-March 2021. It was 13.1% in October-December 2020.

Labour force participation rate(LFPR)

LFPR in urban areas for persons of 15 years of age and above was 47.5% in the January-March quarter of 2021, down from 48.1% in the same period a year ago. It was 47.3%  in October-December 2020.

Working Population Ratio(WPR)

WPR in urban areas for persons of age 15 years and above stood at 43.1% in January-March 2021 down from 43.7% in the same period a year ago. It was 42.4% in October-December 2020.

Source: This post is based on the article “Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) – Quarterly Bulletin (January-March 2021)” published in PIB on 30th November 2021.