Periodic Labour Force Survey 2019-20 | UPSC | UR | LFPR

Periodic Labour Force Survey 2019-20 | Why In The News ? – Recently, the National Statistical Office (NSO) released the third annual report on Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), conducted between July 2019 and June 2020.

Key Highlights Of Survey :

Unemployment Rate:	The unemployment rate fell to 4.8% in 2019-20. In 2018-19, it stood at 5.8% and 6.1% in 2017-18.
Worker Population Rate:	It improved to 38.2% in 2019-20 compared with 35.3% in 2018-19 and 34.7% in 2017-18.
Labour Force Participation Ratio:	It increased to 40.1% in 2019-20 from 37.5% and 36.9%, respectively, in the last two years. The higher the LFPR, the better. The Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) for women has increased from 24.5 per cent in 2018-19 to 30.0 per cent in 2019-20.
Gender Based Unemployment Rate:	The data showed the jobless rate for both male and female fell to 5.1% and 4.2%, respectively, in 2019-20 from 6% and 5.2% in 2018-19. WPR and LFPR also comparatively improved during the year. Unemployment rate for women has come down from 5.1 per cent in 2018-19 to 4.2 per cent in 2019-20.

What is the Periodic Labour Force Survey?

The PLFS is an annual survey conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO).
It was started in 2017
It essentially maps the state of employment.
It collects data on variables such as the level of unemployment, the types of employment and their respective shares, etc.
It has been constituted based on the recommendation of a committee headed by Amitabh Kundu.

Earlier, this job was done by Employment-Unemployment Surveys, but these were conducted once every five years.

Objectives Of NSO :

To estimate the key employment and unemployment indicators (viz. WPR, LFPR, UR) in the short time interval of three months for the urban areas only in the Current Weekly Status (CWS).
To estimate employment and unemployment indicators in both usual status and CWS in both rural and urban areas annually.

Recent Government Initiatives For Generating Employment :

Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP)
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS)
Pt. DeenDayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY)
Deendayal Antodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission.
Aatmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojna (ABRY) Scheme.

Key Terms :

Unemployment Rate (UR)	It is defined as the percentage of persons unemployed among the persons in the labour force.
Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR)	It is defined as the percentage of persons in the labour force (i.e. working or seeking or available for work) in the population.
Worker Population Ratio (WPR)	It is defined as the percentage of employed persons in the population.
Activity Status	The activity status of a person is determined on the basis of the activities pursued by the person during the specified reference period. Usual Status: The activity status determined on the basis of the reference period of the last 365 days preceding the date of survey, it is known as the usual activity status of the person. Current Weekly Status (CWS): The activity status determined on the basis of a reference period of the last 7 days preceding the date of survey is known as the current weekly status (CWS) of the person.