Reliability of findings of recently released Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS)

The National Statistical Office (NSO) released the annual report on the basis of the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) conducted during July 2020-June 2021.

• It functions under the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation

Findings of the survey

• Unemployment rate: it saw a decrease from 4.8% in 2019-20 to 4.2% in 2020-21, meaning that 4.2% of adults who looked out for jobs could not get any work in rural and urban areas of the country in 2020-21.
• In rural areas, the rate is 3.3% while in urban areas the unemployment rate was recorded at 6.7%.
• Internal migration: 11.8 people out of 100 samples migrated to other States during the period of survey

Methodology of the PLFS

• The fieldwork of PLFS was suspended twice during the survey in March 2020 and in April 2021 due to COVID-19.
• A rotational panel sampling design has been used in urban areas, which means each selected household in urban areas is visited four times.
• The PLFS gives estimates of key employment and unemployment indicators like, the Labour Force Participation Rates (LFPR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR) and Unemployment Rate (UR)

Problem areas

• Questions have been raised over the approach and methodology of the PLFS.
• PLFS or any such survey cannot produce decent data on migration.
• It cannot compare a normal year with an abnormal, pandemic-hit year
• A second visit to the rural households could have provided a bigger and larger picture of unemployment that was not captured by the PLFS.
• Comparing the lower rate of economic growth during 2020-21 to the PLFS report on unemployment presents a contradiction as according to the Central Statistics Office, India’s GDP growth fell over 7.3% during 2020-21.

Suggestions to overcome such objections

• The country needs reasonably good data for evidence-based policies to address issues such as unemployment and farmers’ distress.
• Governments need data to understand the economic and social behaviour of the people.
• For example, if the survey says unemployment has decreased, there are chances that the government systems become lethargic in addressing the situation

Way Ahead

• The data is used basically for planning governmental intervention in various sectors such as agriculture, infrastructure, animal husbandry etc.
• For drafting any policy, data has to be used in a context. If the reality is not reflected in data, the public may reject such data

Exam Track

Prelims Takeaway

• PLFS survey report
• National Statistical Office (NSO)

Mains Track

Q. Discuss about the recent findings of the PLFS survey and the issue of reliability raised against it.