On May 15, 2024, the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) released its 22nd quarterly Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) bulletin for January-March 2024 (Q4FY24).
- As per it, India’s Urban Unemployment Rate (UR) in Current Weekly Status (CWS) terms for persons aged 15 years and above declined by 10 basis points to 6.7% in Q4FY24 from 6.8% in Q4FY23.
- It was 6.5% in Q3FY24 (October – December 2023).
Assessment:
A total number of 5,706 FSUs (First Stage Units) (urban sampling unit curved out from Urban Frame Survey/UFS) have been surveyed during Q4FY24. The number of urban households surveyed was 44,598, and number of persons surveyed was 1,69,459 in urban areas.
Key Figures representing Persons of 15 years and above in Urban Areas in Q4FY24:
i.UR in CWS among male population increased to 6.1% as compared to 6% in Q4FY23.
- UR in CWS among females saw a decline during Q4FY23 to 8.5% from 9.2% in Q4FY23.
ii.At the all India level, Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) in CWS increased to 50.2% from 48.5% in Q4FY23.
- For male, it was 74.4% as compared to 73.5% in Q4FY23.
- For females, LFPR increased to 25.6% from 22.7% in Q4FY23.
iii. At the all India level, Worker Population Ratio (WPR- in %) in CWS increased to 46.9% from 45.2% in Q4FY23.
- For male, it is at 69.8% from 69.1% in Q4FY23.
- For females, it increased to 23.4% from 20.6% in Q4FY23.
About Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS):
It was launched in 2017 by NSSO to serves the following two purposes:
- 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 (quarterly) 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.
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.As per the data released by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), MOSPI, India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew one year high to 7.8% in the April-June quarter of 2023-2024 (Q1FY24), compared to a growth of 6.1% in the January-March quarter of FY23
(Q4FY23).
About Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI):
Minister of State (Independent Charge)– Rao Inderjit Singh (Constituency- Gurugram, Haryana)
Headquarters- New Delhi, Delhi
