Parliament Question: Sampling Methodology of PLFS

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4384 TO BE ANSWERED ON 20.08.2025 SAMPLING METHODOLOGY OF PLFS 4384. SHRI CHHATRAPAL SINGH GANGWAR: SHRI ARUN GOVIL: SHRI KANWAR SINGH TANWAR: SHRI NALIN SOREN: Will the Minister of STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION be pleased to state: (a) the details of changes made in the sampling methodology of Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) from January, 2025; (b) the summary of key labour force indicators like Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR) and Unemployment Rate (UR) for April, 2025; (c) the key difference in labour force participation and gender-wise trends in rural and urban areas particularly in Dumka, Jharkhand; (d) whether the restructured PLFS is being used for targeted policy making; and (e) if so, the manner in which it is being used and the details thereof? ANSWER 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] (a) to (e): 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 thefollowing objectives:  to estimate the key employment and unemployment indicators (viz. Labour Force Participation Rate, Worker Population Ratio, Unemployment Rate) on a monthly basis for rural and urban areas at all-India level in the Current Weekly Status (CWS)  to extend the coverage of the Quarterly results of PLFS to rural areas and thereby producing quarterly estimates at the country level and for major States in the Current Weekly Status (CWS)  to estimate important employment and unemployment indicators in both usual status (ps+ss) and CWS in both rural and urban areas annually. Usual Status (ps+ss) and Current Weekly Status (CWS) refers to frameworks for determining activity status of person surveyed based on reference periods of last 365 days and last seven days preceding the date of survey, respectively. Salient aspects of the change in the sampling methodology of PLFS are given below:  Enhancement of the sample size The revamped PLFS sample design is a multistage stratified design. List of census 2011 villages / urban Frame Survey (UFS) blocks / sub-units (for those villages or UFS blocks where sub-units are formed within) together formed the sampling frame for selection of the First Stage Units (FSUs). In the revamped PLFS sample design, a total sample size of 22,692 FSUs is planned to be surveyed (12,504 FSUs in the rural areas and 10,188 in the urban areas) in each year of the two- year panel with first visit schedule as compared to 12,800 FSUs surveyed in PLFS upto December, 2024. A total of 12 households will be surveyed from each of the selected FSUs which implies an overall sample size of around (22,692 x 12) = 2,72,304 households. This marks a 2.65 time increase in sample households to be covered in PLFS as compared to the number of sample households covered upto December, 2024 (which was around 1,02,400). The enhanced sample size is expected to provide reliable estimates of labour market indicators with improved precision. Changes in the Rotation panel scheme In the rotational panel scheme adopted in the revamped PLFS sample design employed from January 2025, each selected household is visited four times in four consecutive months –in the beginning with first visit schedule in the first month and other three with the revisit schedule in the following three months for both rural and urban areas. This rotational panel scheme ensures a 75% matching of the samples surveyed between two consecutive months for both rural and urban areas and 50% matching in successive quarters.  Changes in the First (or Primary) Stage sampling units (FSUs) of the multistage design With a view to ensure uniformity in the size of First Stage Units and for operational convenience, large census 2011 villages and UFS blocks are notionally divided into smaller units of more or less equal size, known as sub-units depending on a pre-defined criteria based on population in the village or number of households in the UFS block. In the revamped PLFS design employed from January 2025, the list of census 2011 villages / sub-units (for those census 2011 villages where sub-units are formed within) together formed the sampling frame for selection of the First Stage Units for rural areas. Likewise, the list of latest available UFS blocks / subunits (for those UFS blocks where sub-units are formed within) together formed the sampling frame for selection of the First Stage Units for urban areas.  Modification in the Stratification of First (or Primary) Stage sampling units In the revamped PLFS sample design, district has been made the primary geographical unit, called basic stratum within a state/UT separately for rural and urban sectors for selecting FSUs for most part of the geography covered. In the remaining parts NSS region has been made the basic stratum.  Changes in selection scheme for selecting FSUs In the revamped PLFS sample design, FSUs from each of the stratum / sub-strata is selected for each month following Simple Random Sampling (SRS) scheme.The revamped PLFS sample design from January 2025 results in the following updation in the PLFS dissemination:  Availability of monthly estimates of key labour market indicators at the country level: The revamped PLFS sample design will enable generation of the monthly estimates of key labour market indicators viz. Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR) and Unemployment Rate (UR) at the all-India level following the Current Weekly Status (CWS) approach. The monthly estimates will help in timely policy interventions.  Extending quarterly estimates to rural areas: Upto December, 2024 PLFS provided quarterly labour market indicators for the urban areas only. With the updation in the PLFS sample design quarterly estimates of employment unemployment indicators will be available for both rural and urban areas and hence for the entire country. The estimates of key labour force indicators like Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR) and Unemployment Rate (UR) based on the Monthly Bulletin of PLFS conducted during the month of April 2025 according to Current Weekly Status (CWS) for persons of all age at all India level are given in Table at Annexure I. The State-wise estimates of LFPR, including Jharkhand, in usual status (ps+ss) separately for male, female and person of rural, urban and rural+urban areas from Annual Report of PLFS conducted during July 2023-June 2024 are given in the table at Annexure II. The estimates in Annual Report of PLFS 2023-24 have been released at Central and State/UT level only and estimates of Dumka, Jharkhand are not separately available. *****Annexure I Table (1): Labour Force Indicators (in per cent) according to Current Weekly Status (CWS) for persons of all age during April 2025 from PLFS all-India LFPR in Current Weekly Status (CWS) for persons of all age sector male female person rural 57.5 28.8 42.9 urban 58.5 20.5 39.9 rural + urban 57.8 26.2 42.0 WPR in Current Weekly Status (CWS) for persons of all age sector male female person rural 54.7 27.7 41.0 urban 55.1 18.7 37.3 rural + urban 54.8 24.9 39.8 UR in Current Weekly Status (CWS) for persons of all age sector male female person rural 4.9 3.8 4.5 urban 5.8 8.7 6.5 rural + urban 5.2 5.0 5.1 Source: Periodic Labour Force Survey, Monthly Bulletin, April 2025Annexure II Table (2): Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) (in per cent) according to usual status (ps+ss) for male, female and person of rural, urban and rural+urban areas for each State/UT from PLFS 2023-24 rural urban rural + urban State/UT male female person male female person male female person (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) Andhra Pradesh 59.7 40.7 50.1 59.3 24.5 41.3 59.5 35.8 47.5 Arunachal Pradesh 59.3 53.1 56.3 56.0 34.5 45.1 58.7 49.9 54.4 Assam 60.7 38.2 49.6 64.3 25.5 45.0 61.1 36.8 49.1 Bihar 48.1 21.1 34.9 48.2 12.0 30.9 48.1 20.3 34.5 Chhattisgarh 65.2 50.4 57.8 63.6 27.9 46.4 64.9 46.1 55.5 Delhi 54.7 13.8 37.8 54.0 14.5 35.9 54.0 14.5 36.0 Goa 58.1 21.8 40.5 54.9 23.7 39.5 56.3 22.9 39.9 Gujarat 62.8 44.3 53.8 62.0 23.6 43.7 62.5 35.8 49.6 Haryana 51.8 20.2 37.1 56.3 16.7 37.9 53.5 18.8 37.4 Himachal Pradesh 64.9 58.7 61.7 64.2 35.7 51.4 64.8 56.2 60.5 Jharkhand 53.1 40.4 46.8 52.1 15.0 34.0 52.9 35.8 44.4 Karnataka 60.0 34.6 47.3 59.8 23.6 42.1 59.9 30.5 45.4 Kerala 59.7 36.2 47.3 58.4 30.3 43.3 59.1 33.4 45.4 Madhya Pradesh 63.2 45.4 54.6 58.7 22.3 40.7 62.0 39.4 51.0 Maharashtra 61.0 38.0 49.6 61.0 23.7 43.1 61.0 32.0 46.8 Manipur 52.8 36.5 44.6 52.4 35.7 43.9 52.7 36.3 44.4 Meghalaya 54.8 48.7 51.7 53.1 37.8 45.1 54.6 47.1 50.7 Mizoram 51.1 30.5 41.0 49.2 30.2 39.6 50.2 30.4 40.4 Nagaland 57.3 45.2 51.1 52.0 35.8 44.1 55.7 42.7 49.1 Odisha 61.9 40.3 50.8 59.1 24.4 42.0 61.5 38.0 49.4 Punjab 62.4 27.7 45.2 62.6 19.0 41.4 62.5 24.4 43.7 Rajasthan 56.4 43.0 49.6 56.8 23.5 40.9 56.5 38.0 47.3 Sikkim 67.1 65.5 66.4 61.1 26.2 46.0 65.7 56.9 61.7 Tamil Nadu 60.4 44.5 52.3 59.2 24.4 41.3 59.8 35.2 47.2 Telangana 61.4 44.0 52.4 57.5 24.5 41.3 59.8 36.5 48.0 Tripura 64.8 39.1 51.9 57.3 25.9 41.3 63.5 36.8 50.0 Uttarakhand 56.6 41.8 49.3 55.6 18.6 37.2 56.4 35.9 46.2 Uttar Pradesh 54.7 28.1 41.5 56.9 13.5 36.2 55.2 25.2 40.4 West Bengal 63.6 33.7 48.6 64.3 26.8 45.4 63.8 31.7 47.7 Andaman & N. Island 67.5 44.6 56.5 67.9 30.0 49.3 67.7 38.0 53.3 Chandigarh 60.1 25.0 43.5 60.1 25.0 43.5 Dadra & Nagar Haveli & Daman & Diu 62.1 54.3 58.3 69.9 18.5 47.9 66.7 34.7 52.3 Jammu & Kashmir 55.7 41.9 49.0 58.2 25.8 42.5 56.2 38.8 47.8 Ladakh 55.5 46.4 51.3 61.0 26.3 45.0 56.2 43.7 50.5 Lakshadweep 73.3 14.5 45.7 56.3 12.4 35.4 61.2 13.0 38.4 Puducherry 58.6 37.1 48.0 58.2 24.4 40.2 58.4 28.9 43.1 all India 57.9 35.5 46.8 59.0 22.3 41.0 58.2 31.7 45.1 Note: 1) For Chandigarh entire area has been considered as urban for this survey 2) 2023-24 refers to the period July 2023 – June 2024 Source: Annual Report, PLFS, 2023-24