On February 24, 2023, the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) released the 5th ‘Annual Report Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS)- July, 2021 – June, 2022’ stating Unemployment rate (UR) at 5-year low of 4.1% in 2021-22. It was 4.2% in July 2020-June 2021.
- The pan-India UR for male was 4.4% and for women was 3.3% in July, 2021 – June, 2022.
- The Unemployment Rate (UR) under the ‘usual status’ during the one-year period declined for the fourth consecutive year since it was launched in April 2017.
Assessment:
The 5th annual report by NSSO is premised upon the PLFS conducted during July 2021-June 2022.
Key Notes:
i.In usual status, employment is determined on the basis of the reference period of 365 days preceding the date of the survey,
ii.In employment status, it is determined on the basis of a reference period of seven days, which is known as the current weekly status (CWS) of the person.
Key Figures representing UR in usual status during PLFS July 2021-June 2022 for persons of age 15 years and above
i.The UR in both rural and urban areas declined to 3.2% and 6.3%, respectively from 3.3% and 6.7% respectively, in July 2020-June 2021.
- For rural women it was 2.1% and for rural men was 3.8%.
- For urban women it was 7.9% and for men was 5.8%.
ii.The labour force participation rate (LFPR) had increased significantly in the last five years from 37.5% in 2018-19 to 55.2%.
- The rural LFPR stood at 57.5% marginally up from 57.4% in July 2020-June 2021.
- The urban LFPR was at 49.7% from 49.1% in July 2020-June 2021.
iii.The Worker-to-Population Ratio (WPR) was 52.9% as compared to 52.6% in July 2020-June 2021.
- The rural WPR stood at 55.6% marginally up from 55.5% in July 2020-June 2021.
- The urban WPR stood at 46.6% from 45.8% in July 2020-June 2021.
Key Figures representing UR in Current Weekly Status (CWS) during PLFS, 2021-22, 2020-21 and 2019-20 for persons of age 15 years and above
The all India UR in CWS 6.6% as compared to 7.5% in July 2020-June 2021.
- It was 5.8% for females and 6.9% for males.
i.The UR in rural and urban was 6% and 8.3%, respectively from 6.5% and 10.1% respectively, in July 2020-June 2021.
- For rural women it was 4.5% and for rural men was 6.5%.
- For urban women it was 9.9% and for men was 7.8%.
ii.The LFPR was 51.7% from 51.8% in July 2020-June 2021.
- The rural LFPR stood at 53% from 53.4% in July 2020-June 2021.
- The urban LFPR was at 48.6% from 48% in July 2020-June 2021.
iii.The Worker-to-Population Ratio (WPR) was 48.3% as compared to 47.9% in July 2020-June 2021.
- The rural stood at 49.9% from 50% in July 2020-June 2021.
- The urban WPR stood at 44.6% from 43.1% in July 2020-June 2021.
Release of 17th Quarterly PLFS by NSSO
The NSSO also released the 17th quarterly PLFS survey for urban India for October-December 2022 quarter. As per it, India’s urban UR in CWS terms for persons aged 15 years and above declined to 7.2% during October-December 2022 from 8.7% a year ago(October-December 2021).
- The unemployment rate in the July-September 2022 was also 7.2% only.
- For all ages, India’s urban UR in CWS terms in October-December 2022 was also 7.2%.
Key Figures representing Persons of 15 years and above in Urban Areas in October-December 2022:
i.The UR for men declined marginally to 6.5% from 6.6% in July-September 2022.
ii.The UR for women increased narrowly to 9.6% from 9.4% in July-September 2022.
iii.The LFPR in urban areas for persons of 15 years and above increased marginally to 48.2% from 47.9% in July-September 2022.
- LFPR of males saw a marginal decline to 73.3% from 73.4% in July-September 2022.
- LFPR of females registered a small increase at 22.3% from 21.7% in July-September 2022.
iv.The WPR in CWS in urban areas for persons of 15 years and above stood at 44.7% as compared to 44.5% in July-September 2022.
- WPR of males was 68.6%, same as July-September 2022.
- WPR for females was 20.2% as compared to 19.7% in July-September 2022.
v.Youth unemployment (for the 15-29 age group) marginally increased to 18.6% in December quarter against 18.5% in July-September 2022.
About Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS):
It was launched in 2017 by NSSO. It serves the following two purposes:
- To brought out quarterly estimates of labour force indicators namely UR, WPR, LFPR, distribution of workers by broad status in employment, and industry of work in CWS within a short duration of 3 months.
- To annually estimate employment and unemployment indicators in rural and urban areas using Usual Status and CWS.
Key Definitions:
UR: It is defined as the percentage of unemployed persons among the labour force.
LFPR: It is defined as the percentage of persons in labour force (i.e. working or seeking or available for work) in the population.
WPR: It is defined as the percentage of employed persons in the population.
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.
Recent Related News:
i.On November 30, 2022, NSO released the Estimates of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the Second Quarter (July- September) 2022-23 or Q2FY23. As per it, India’s GDP for the Q2FY23 slowed to 6.3% as compared to the expansion of 8.4% in Q2FY22. It was 13.5% in the April-June quarter of FY23 (Q1FY23).
ii.According to the 77th round of the Situation Assessment Survey (SAS) of Agricultural Households in the rural areas of India, Meghalaya tops the list of Average monthly income per agricultural household.
About Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI):
Minister of State (Independent Charge)– Rao Inderjit Singh (Constituency- Gurugram, Haryana)
Secretary– DR. G P Samanta
