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For Preliminary Examination: Unemployment in India, Periodic Labour Force Survey
For Mains Examination: GS III - Economy
Context:
The rate of unemployment in the country declined to 5.2% in July from 5.6% in June, shows the Periodic Labour Force Survey released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on Monday.
Read about:
Periodic Labour Force Survey
Unemployment in India
Key takeaways:
- According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, the unemployment rate in India dropped to 5.2% in July, down from 5.6% in June.
- The Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) for women registered a slight improvement, rising from 24.5% in June to 25.5% in July. Among men, it stood at 57.4%, while the overall LFPR was 41.4%.
- In rural regions, the LFPR for men aged 15 and above was 78.1%, whereas for women it was 36.9%. In contrast, urban areas recorded an LFPR of 25.8% for women and 75.1% for men in the same age bracket.
- The survey further reported that the unemployment rate (UR) among people aged 15 and above was 5.2% nationwide — 4.4% in rural areas and 7.2% in urban areas. Within rural areas, the UR was 3.9% for women and 4.6% for men. In urban centres, the unemployment rate was 8.7% for women and 6.6% for men.
- The Worker Population Ratio (WPR) — which reflects the share of employed individuals in the total population — improved as well. For persons aged 15 and above in rural areas, the WPR rose from 53.3% in June to 54.4% in July.
- In urban areas, it stood at 47%, while the all-India average reached 52%, marking a 0.8 percentage point increase over June.
- For the survey, the Labour Bureau covered 89,505 households (49,355 rural and 40,150 urban), encompassing 3,79,222 individuals — of which 2,16,832 were from rural areas and 1,62,390 from urban regions
Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS)
- The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) is India’s primary mechanism for collecting and publishing official employment and unemployment statistics. It was launched in 2017 by the National Statistical Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) with the aim of producing more regular and timely labour market data than earlier surveys.
- Unlike the older Employment-Unemployment Surveys that were conducted once every five years, the PLFS provides both annual estimates and quarterly estimates. The annual reports cover both rural and urban areas and provide state-level and all-India data for the period from July to June.