The National Statistics Office launched the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) in April 2017 to provide more frequent labor force data. The PLFS has two main goals: to estimate key employment and unemployment indicators (such as the Worker Population Ratio, Labour Force Participation Rate, and Unemployment Rate) in short three-month intervals for urban areas using the Current Weekly Status (CWS) method, and to estimate employment and unemployment indicators in both Usual Status (ps+ss) and CWS for both rural and urban areas annually. The data collected in PLFS during January–December 2024 is presented, with estimates in both Usual Status (ps+ss) and Current Weekly Status (CWS) for people aged 15 and older.
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प्रमुख रोजगार बेरोजगार
संकेतक
KEY EMPLOYMENT UNEMPLOYMENT INDICATORS
FOR
(जनवरी 2024 – दिसंबर 2024)
(JANUARY 2024 – DECEMBER 2024)
आवधिक श्रमबल सर्वेक्षण (पीगलएफएस)
Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS)
भारत सरकार
Government of India
सांख्यिकी और कार्यक्रम कार्यान्वयन्त मंत्रालय
Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation
राष्ट्रीय सांख्यिकी कार्यालय
National Statistics Office
अर्पल, 2025
April, 2025
(1)) www.mospi.gov.in (T) GoiStats Gov (C)GolStats GoIStats
Key Employment Unemployment Indicators for 2024
1. Introduction
The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) was launched by the National Statistics Office in April 2017 with the view of making labour force data available at more frequent time intervals.
The objective of PLFS has been 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 PLFS, Annual Reports are brought out which covers both rural and urban areas and provides estimates of all important parameters of employment and unemployment in both usual status (ps+ss) and current weekly status (CWS). Seven such PLFS Annual Reports have been released with the latest report brought out based on PLFS conducted during July 2023 – June 2024.
2. Calendar year-wise estimates from PLFS
In the Annual Reports of PLFS, estimates of labour market indicators are presented on the basis of the data collected during the period July of a year to the June of the next year, e.g., in the Annual Report, PLFS, 2023-24 estimates are presented based on data collected during July 2023 – June 2024.
The samples of First Stage Units (FSU) of PLFS canvassed during the period July of one year to June of the next year are independently drawn for each quarter before commencement of the survey. Since the quarterly samples are drawn independently, estimates of labour force indicators for a calendar year i.e. for the period January – December of a specific year have been obtained by combining the data collected during the four quarters of the calendar year.
For example, the samples for the four quarters, namely, January – March 2024, AprilJune 2024, July – September 2024 and October – December 2024 of the calendar year 2024 have been combined to produce the estimates of key labour market indicators for the calendar year 2024.
In PLFS conducted till 2024, a rotational panel sample design was followed in urban areas wherein each selected household in urban areas was visited four times – one with first visit Schedule and other three with revisit Schedule. In rural areas there was no provision of conducting revisits. The calendar year estimates presented here are based on information collected during first visit of PLFS.
3. Sample Size
Sample Size for First Visit during January 2024 – December 2024 in rural and urban areas for the estimates of 2024: A total of 12,749 FSU $^{1} \mathrm{~s}$ ( 6,982 villages and 5,767 urban blocks) were surveyed for canvassing the PLFS schedule (Schedule 10.4). The number of households surveyed was 1,01,957 (55,846 in rural areas and 46,111 in urban areas) and number of persons surveyed was $4,15,549$ (2,40,492 in rural areas and 1,75,057 in urban areas). Among the persons surveyed, total number of persons of age 15 years and above was 3,18,344 (1,79,460 in rural areas and 1,38,884 in urban areas).
4. Conceptual Framework ${ }^{2}$ of key Employment and Unemployment Indicators presented:
The key employment and unemployment Indicators presented here are the Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR), Unemployment Rate (UR). These estimates have been presented following the Current Weekly Status (CWS) and Usual Status (ps+ss) approach. Definition of these indicators, and the ‘Usual Status’ and ‘Current Weekly Status’ are as follows:
(a) 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.
Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR):
no. of employed persons + no.of unemployed persons
total population
(b) Worker Population Ratio (WPR): WPR is defined as the percentage of employed persons in the population.
$$
\text { Worker Population Ratio (WPR): } \frac{\text { no. of employed persons }}{\text { total population }} * 100
$$
(c) Unemployment Rate (UR): UR is defined as the percentage of persons unemployed among the persons in the labour force.
Unemployment Rate (UR):
no. of unemployed persons
no. of employed persons + no. of unemployed persons
(d) Activity Status- Usual Status: The activity status of a person is determined on the basis of the activities pursued by the person during the specified reference period. When the activity status is determined on the basis of the reference period of last 365 days preceding the date of survey, it is known as the usual activity status of the person.
Principal activity status (ps) – The activity status on which a person spent relatively long time (major time criterion) during 365 days preceding the date of survey, was considered as the usual principal activity status of the person.
Subsidiary economic activity status (ss)- The activity status in which a person in addition to his/her usual principal status, performs some economic activity for 30 days or more for the reference period of 365 days preceding the date of survey, was considered as the subsidiary economic activity status of the person.
Usual status (ps+ss) is determined considering both principal activity status (ps) and subsidiary economic activity status (ss) together.
(e) Activity Status- 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.
5. Key Indicators of Labour market from PLFS for 2023 and 2024
In Statements 1 and 2, estimates of key labour market indicators viz. Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR) and Unemployment Rate (UR) are presented based on the data collected in PLFS during the calendar year January – December 2024. The estimates are presented in both Usual Status (ps+ss) and Current Weekly Status (CWS) for persons of age 15 years and above.
Statement 1: LFPR, WPR and UR (in per cent) in usual status (ps+ss) from PLFS conducted during January 2023 – December 2023 and January 2024 – December 2024 for persons of age 15 years and above
| Indicator | Rural | Urban | Rural + Urban | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| male | female | person | male | female | person | male | female | person | |
| (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) | (7) | (8) | (9) | (10) |
| January 2023 – December 2023 | |||||||||
| LFPR | 79.8 | 47.3 | 63.4 | 74.9 | 27.2 | 51.4 | 78.3 | 41.3 | 59.8 |
| WPR | 77.7 | 46.4 | 61.9 | 71.6 | 25.2 | 48.8 | 75.8 | 40.1 | 58.0 |
| UR | 2.7 | 1.9 | 2.4 | 4.4 | 7.5 | 5.2 | 3.2 | 3.0 | 3.1 |
| January 2024 – December 2024 | |||||||||
| LFPR | 80.6 | 45.8 | 62.9 | 76.2 | 27.6 | 52.2 | 79.2 | 40.3 | 59.6 |
| WPR | 78.4 | 44.8 | 61.4 | 72.8 | 25.8 | 49.6 | 76.6 | 39.0 | 57.7 |
| UR | 2.8 | 2.1 | 2.5 | 4.4 | 6.7 | 5.0 | 3.3 | 3.1 | 3.2 |
Statement 2: LFPR, WPR and UR (in per cent) in Current Weekly Status (CWS) from PLFS conducted during January 2023 – December 2023 and January 2024 – December 2024 for persons of age 15 years and above
| Indicator | Rural | Urban | Rural + Urban | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| male | female | person | male | female | person | male | female | person | |
| (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) | (7) | (8) | (9) | (10) |
| January 2023 – December 2023 | |||||||||
| LFPR | 78.3 | 39.6 | 58.8 | 74.3 | 25.5 | 50.3 | 77.0 | 35.4 | 56.2 |
| WPR | 74.6 | 38.0 | 56.2 | 69.9 | 23.2 | 47.0 | 73.2 | 33.7 | 53.4 |
| UR | 4.6 | 3.8 | 4.3 | 6.0 | 8.9 | 6.7 | 5.0 | 4.9 | 5.0 |
| January 2024 – December 2024 | |||||||||
| LFPR | 79.2 | 38.6 | 58.6 | 75.6 | 25.8 | 51.0 | 78.1 | 34.7 | 56.2 |
| WPR | 75.7 | 37.1 | 56.1 | 71.0 | 23.7 | 47.6 | 74.2 | 33.0 | 53.5 |
| UR | 4.3 | 3.9 | 4.2 | 6.1 | 8.2 | 6.7 | 4.9 | 4.9 | 4.9 |
- Some Additional Indicators in Current Weekly Status (CWS) from PLFS conducted during January, 2024 – December, 2024
| Srl. No. |
Description of the Indicator | Estimate of Indicator (in per cent) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 2024 – December 2024 | ||||
| Rural | Urban | Rural + Urban | ||
| (1) | (2) | (4) | (5) | (6) |
| 1 | Ratio of female workers to male workers working as Legislators, Senior officials and Managers (age group: 15 years and above) | 13.3 | 13.1 | 13.2 |
| 2 | Ratio of female workers to male workers working as Professionals and Technical Workers (age group: 15 years and above) | 45.6 | 45.8 | 45.7 |
| 3 | Percentage of female employed with advanced degree among total employed (age group: 25 years and above) | 1.5 | 7.0 | 3.0 |
Clarification on the indicators:
- Indicators at srl. no. 1 and 2 is for persons of age 15 years and above and based on the information on occupation collected using the National Classification of Occupation (NCO). For collection of occupation information for the survey during January 2024 – December 2024, NCO-2015 was used.
- Indicator at srl. no. 3 is for female of age 25 years and above and based on the information on highest level of education successfully completed. The highest level of education ‘graduation’ and/or ‘post graduation and above’ have been considered as advanced degree.
Note: Unit level data for January 2024 – December 2024 is available at the website of the Ministry (www.mospi.gov.in.)
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${ }^{1}$ Villages and urban blocks are the smallest area units taken as first-stage sampling units (FSU) in rural and urban areas respectively.
${ }^{2}$ The ‘Concepts and Definitions’, ‘Sample Design and Estimation Procedure’ and Schedule of PLFS (Schedule 10.4) (first visit and revisit) may be perused as Appendix C, Appendix D and Appendix E, respectively in the Annual Report, PLFS: 2023-24, which is accessible at www.mospi.gov.in. ↩