What Does the Periodic Labour Force Survey Tell Us?

In India, the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) has been quinquennially gathering employment and unemployment records. From 2017 onwards, the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) was launched by the NSSO. It aimed to provide quarterly work and unemployment data, with a file expected in December 2018. However, this was made public in May 2019.

Periodic Labour Force Survey

Though there are a few methodological issues in evaluating the PLFS results and the quinquennial survey rounds carried out using the NSSO for rural regions, the identical sampling method followed before NSSO rounds. However, for 1/2 of the city areas, the exact methodology used in the NSS’s 68th spherical was accompanied, even as for the alternative half, a brand new layout changed into used.

According to the NSSO, the workforce participation rate (WPR) became 39% on the all-India stage at some point in 2011-12; however, consistent with the PLFS, it declined to 35% in 2017-18. The PLFS additionally notes that between 2011-12 and 2017-18, the WPR declined for both sexes in rural and urban areas. However, the decline became the best (by seven percent points) for rural girl employees.

Over those six years, the WPR declined significantly for the younger populace (15-29 years age institution) relative to the opposite age companies. The decline was large for younger guys close to young ladies. It suggests the process crisis winning inside the labor marketplace, mainly for the educated young process aspirants.

For women, the decline in WPR may be defined totally by their growing involvement in domestic care interest in each rural and urban region. This activity includes household chores, including cooking, cleaning, washing, shopping, and worrying for older people and children.

But fairly, for the identical period, women skilled a decline in home and allied hobbies. This consists of collecting water, fuel wood, greens, household, fodder, timber, and raw fabric for own family corporations. While the previous NSSO round mentioned an accelerated engagement of rural ladies in such a hobby because of the lack of entry to different inexpensive resources, ladies also tried to supplement their family income by gathering food.

So, a surprising drop on this spherical needs a greater exact analysis. A further break up of this code is virtually important to comment on whether there has been any improvement in infrastructural centers like growing to get the right to enter drinking water and fuel. It also can assist in analyzing if the Ujjwala scheme truly had an impact. But the present survey does not acquire any particular home and allied work records, leaving no scope for such analysis.

Increase in unemployment fee

The equal length (2011-12 to 2017-18) also witnessed a growth in India’s unemployment rate, reaching a 45-year high (6.1%) in 2017-18. Gender-smart disaggregated facts similarly indicate better joblessness among men on an all-India foundation than women. From 2009-10 onwards, NSS rounds have shown growth in instructional enrolment percentage for males and females. But the PLFS spherical determined a reversal in both rural and concrete regions.

Surprisingly, for the primary time in 2017-18, there has been a boom in the percentage of renters, pensioners, and remittance recipients for women and men in rural and urban regions. There is an opportunity that this surprising growth is due to specific (or insufficient) training of investigators due to the fact these varieties of activities require probing questions. However, there is little readability in the PLF’s survey technique for collecting statistics or the education given to the enumerators responsible for the statistics series. Hence, offering an affordable cause for this change would be hard.