“The National Statistics Office (NSO) proposes to introduce modification in the sampling design of the PLFS from January 2027, when fresh samples for the two-year period 2027-2028 will be drawn from an updated sampling frame. It also introduces certain changes in the survey schedule,” said an official statement on Friday inviting comments from stakeholders over the next 15 days.
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A key change proposed is a separate stratum to identify digital workers in households to improve the coverage of such workers and facilitate more comprehensive data collection on this emerging segment of the labour market. Accordingly, the NSO has proposed an additional binary question to identify households in which any member has ever engaged in digital platform work during the specified reference period in both urban and rural areas.
New questions are also being added on own use production of goods, unpaid household and caregiving activities, volunteer work, and unpaid trainee work. The NSO has proposed that these items will be canvassed in both rural and urban areas during the first visit only, for persons aged 15 years and above, thereby enabling annual reporting on these activities.
“The inclusion of these items will facilitate a more comprehensive assessment of different forms of work beyond conventional employment, improve the availability of data on unpaid and non-market activities and support a broader understanding of the contribution of individuals to household and community well-being,” it said.
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Further, for better representation of the current population, especially the urban population, the NSO has proposed that fresh samples for the two-year period 2027-2028 will be drawn from an updated frame reflecting the updated Urban Frame Survey, urbanisation and de-urbanisation, and the creation, splitting or merger of districts and other administrative units, along with follow-up on updating of the rural Census 2011 frame.
To ensure a smooth transition and continuity in the monthly and quarterly collection of labour statistics, it has also been proposed that for the first three months from January 2027, the sample will comprise first stage units from both the current frame and the updated frame.
Launched in 2017 as an annual survey, the PLFS now provides quarterly and monthly data on India’s job market and is considered the primary data source on employment and unemployment in the country. At present, it captures the unemployment rate and the employment trends in the country.
Amongst those employed, it measures those who are self-employed, regular wage employees and casual workers and provides estimates on earnings and wages, reasons for unemployment, and other labour market dynamics.
The revamp is expected to help bring in crucial data on emerging sectors like gig workers that now comprise a substantial part of the workforce but are not capture in official statistics.