Changes in Periodic Labour Force Survey From 2025

Changes in Periodic Labour Force Survey From 2025

National Statistics Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has been conducting Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) since 2017 to estimate various indicators related to employment and unemployment in the country. The sampling design of Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) has been revamped from January 2025 to address the requirement of high frequency labour market indicators with enhanced coverage from PLFS. The revamped PLFS is envisaged to address the following objectives:

The revamped PLFS sample design from January 2025 results in the following updation in the PLFS dissemination:

In addition, some changes have also been incorporated in the structure of the Schedule of inquiry. Users of PLFS results need to consider the changes implemented in PLFS from January 2025 while comparing PLFS results with estimates released through PLFS publications up to December, 2024. The results of the PLFS post January 2025 thus need to be understood and used in the context with which the sample selection methodology of PLFS has been designed.

The monthly estimates of labour market indicators are released in the PLFS monthly bulletin along with the measures of error due to sampling in the form of Relative Standard Error (RSE). The RSE of the labour market indicators released till date at the all-India level has remained within acceptable limits. The low levels of RSE of the headline indicators brings forth the reliability of the estimates.

The Monthly Bulletins of PLFS for the months April 2025, May 2025 and June 2025 have been released following a predefined timeframe for release of the results and are made available on the website of the ministry of ease access of users at large. At present the monthly results of PLFS disseminates labour market indicators at the country level and do not have provision for bringing out State level estimates.

This information was given by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation; Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Planning and Minister of State in the Ministry of Culture Rao Inderjit Singh in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today.