Periodic Labour Force Survey 2018-19

• 05 Jun 2020

Why in News

Recently, the National Statistical Office (NSO) released the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) for July 2018 to June 2019.

Key Points

• Unemployment Rate: India’s unemployment rate fell to 5.8% during 2018-19 from 6.1% during the same period of 2017-18.
  
  • The urban unemployment rate reduced to 7.7% from 7.8%.
  • The rural unemployment reduced to 5% from 5.3%.
• Labour Force Participation Rate: The labour force participation rate rose to 37.5% during 2018-19 from 36.9% of 2017-18.
• Female Participation Rate: The female participation rate also improved going up to 18.6% in 2018-19 from 17.5% the year before.
• Worker Population Ratio: The worker population ratio also increased, to 35.3% as against 34.7% in the 2017-18.
• Issues Involved:
  
  • Unemployment was a concern in 2019 and it worsened in 2019-20 due to Covid-19.
  • According to the monthly Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy data, the unemployment rate in India shot up from 7.87% in June 2019 to 23.48% in May 2020.
• 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 Amitabh Kundu.
  • 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 household socio-economic survey programme.

Key Terms

• Unemployment Rate (UR): UR is defined as the percentage of persons unemployed among the persons in the labour force.
• Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR): LFPR is defined as the percentage of persons in the labour force (i.e. working or seeking or available for work) in the population.
• Female Labour Force Participation Rate: It is the share of working-age women who report either being employed, or being available for work.
• Worker Population Ratio (WPR): WPR is defined as the percentage of employed persons in the 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.

National Statistical Office

• NSO is the central statistical agency of the Government mandated under the Statistical Services Act 1980 under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
• It is responsible for the development of arrangements for providing statistical information services to meet the needs of the Government and other users for information on which to base policy, planning, monitoring and management decisions.
  
  • The services include collecting, compiling and disseminating official statistical information.
  • All business operations in NSO are done in compliance with international standards, procedures and best practices.

Recent Government Initiatives to Tackle Unemployment

• The Union government has come up with an economic stimulus package under Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan to support the Indian economy and create jobs.
  
  • Under the Pradhan Mantri Street Vendor's Atma Nirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi), the Union Government is providing affordable loans to street vendors.
  • The government has allocated an additional fund of Rs 40,000 crore for MGNREGA, as part of the stimulus package.
  • The government is offering credit guarantees for MSMEs which will help them in getting loans easily and boost their functioning.
• Various other initiatives have also been taken by the government to support the economy which includes relaxation in Companies Act and Insolvency proceedings, reforms in agri- marketing etc.
• State governments have also come up with the initiative to support their economy and increase jobs.
  
  • Andhra Pradesh government’s ‘ReStart’ programme to support the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) sector in the State.
  • Jharkhand has launched three employment schemes to create wage employment for workers in rural areas.

Source: PIB