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Informist, Monday, Apr. 21, 2025

 

MUMBAI - The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation will release the monthly Periodic Labour Force Survey data for the first three months of 2025--all together--on May 15, according to an official aware of the matter. "This is the first time we are doing it. We just wanted to have internal consistency checks," the person said on Monday, requesting anonymity.

 

Informist had reported back in September that the statistics ministry was looking to release labour force survey data every month for both rural and urban areas. As per a senior government official who then spoke on the condition of anonymity, the monthly labour force surveys will be on the basis of a smaller sample size and will, therefore, have a higher standard error – a measure of the accuracy of estimates. However, the official had told Informist that even with a higher standard error, the monthly surveys "will still be much better than other alternatives".

 

As per the latest annual Periodic Labour Force Survey report, the all-India unemployment rate in 2024 was 3.2%, slightly up from 3.1% in 2023, with the rural unemployment rate at 2.5% and the urban rate at 5.0%. In 2023, the rural unemployment rate was 2.4% and the urban rate was 5.2%.

 

The Periodic Labour Force Survey--which details key numbers such as the unemployment rate, Labour Force Participation Rate, and Worker Population Ratio--is the only official measure of job levels in the country. Currently, data for rural India is only available annually, while the survey is conducted every quarter for urban areas. Monthly payroll data from the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation, Employees' State Insurance Corp., and the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority are often used as proxies by economists and commentators, even though these data do not measure employment.

 

"Monthly PLFS is a step towards that only. Because up till now there were other monthly releases but they were not representative. So ours will be statistically robust, statistically representative. This will help fill up that gap," the aforementioned official said.

 

The same person also added that the new data series for the CPI, GDP, and Index of Industrial Production will all be released in the first quarter of 2026. The statistics ministry previously said that the new CPI series with updated base year and consumption basket will be released in February.  End

 

Reported by Kshipra Petkar and Sachi Pandey

Edited by Vandana Hingorani

 

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