All About the Periodic Labour Force Survey
Context:
- Discussions about economic policy have revolved around the topic of jobs, particularly in the last several years when it has been perceived that there is not a strong correlation between job creation and economic growth.
- Significant economic upheaval has been brought on by the pandemic, which has resulted in widespread financial hardship, a spike in unemployment, and a large-scale exodus of people back to their communities.
Current Situation:
- The nation’s unemployment rate decreased between April and June 2023, according to data from the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO)’s Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS).
- In a similar vein, improvements have also been shown in the Worker-Population Ratio (WPR) and the Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) for those over the age of 15.
- This suggests that the labour market is getting better. Nonetheless, the study also shows an increase in self-employment and a decrease in the percentage of traditional wage/salaried work.
Principal results of the survey:
- The percentage of adults in India who are 15 years of age or older who are in the work force increased from 49.8% in 2017–18 to 57.9% in 2022–2023 overall.
- Both rural and urban participation rates have increased, but the growth in the former is far more pronounced.
- The majority of this gain has been attributed to females, whose participation rate in rural regions increased by around 17 percentage points between 2017–18 and 2022–23, from 24.6 percent to 41.5%.
- Considering the low rates of female engagement in the nation, this should be promising, but others have stated that the surge in participation is a sign of the economic hardship in rural areas, forcing women to work to supplement their family finances.
- Even discounting the epidemic years of 2020–21 and 2021–22, work under MGNREGA, where pay are lower than in other non-farm occupations, has been gradually increasing over time, and the number of women employed under the scheme has also been constantly increasing.
- In tandem with the rise in labour force participation rates, the proportion of self-employed individuals has increased, rising from 55.6% in 2020–21 to 57.3% in 2022–2023.
- However, the percentage of workers earning a regular salary or salary has decreased from 21.1% to 20.9%.
- Additionally, from 71.4% in 2020–21 to 74.3% in 2022–23, more workers in the non-agricultural sector are employed by informal sector businesses.
Way Forward:
- While rates of unemployment have decreased overall and among young people (those between the ages of 15 and 29), the decline in the share of regular wage/salaried work and the increase in self-employment fuel worries that the economy cannot produce enough lucrative and productive jobs to accommodate the millions of people who enter the labour force each year.
- Creating enough jobs has been and continues to be the largest problem facing politicians.
