In a major statistical reform, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has announced that key labour force indicators from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) will now be released on a monthly basis at the all-India level, starting April 2025. Additionally, quarterly PLFS results will now include data from rural areas, not just urban ones.
This development aims to enhance the scope, relevance, and frequency of employment-related statistics, with the revamped PLFS sample design enabling timely policy interventions through high-frequency labour market data.
Difference from Earlier Released PLFS Report
Previously, PLFS quarterly data focused solely on urban areas, while rural and combined estimates were only provided annually. The new design allows for monthly estimates of Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR), and Unemployment Rate (UR) in the Current Weekly Status (CWS) framework for both rural and urban areas.
The ministry also announced that, from 2025 onwards, annual PLFS reports will align with the calendar year (January–December) instead of the July–June cycle.
More about PLFS
PLFS was launched in 2017 essentially to address the requirement of generating estimate of the key employment and unemployment indicators quarterly for the urban areas only in the CWS and providing important employment and unemployment indicators in both usual status and CWS in both rural and urban areas annually.
Quaterly Result of PLFS to Continue
The quarterly results of PLFS have been brought out in the form of Quarterly Bulletins. Till 2024, twenty-five Quarterly Bulletins of PLFS corresponding to the quarter ending December 2018 to quarter ending December 2024 have been released.
Motive behind the Change
“The revamped PLFS sample design will enable generation of the monthly estimates of key labour market indicators like labour force participation rate, worker population ratio and unemployment rate at the all-India level following the CWS approach. The monthly estimates will help in timely policy interventions. The first monthly bulletin of PLFS for the month April, 2025 is scheduled to be released in May, 2025,” the Ministry said.
This strategic overhaul is expected to align India’s labour statistics more closely with global standards and support international reporting obligations.
The first monthly PLFS bulletin, reflecting April 2025 data, will be released in May 2025.
