Centre plans monthly data on job creation, unemployment, say officials

Official data on job creation and unemployment will be available every month, likely from April next year, as the government has approved a proposal to increase the frequency of PLFS

Official data on job creation and unemployment will be available every month, likely from April next year, as the government has approved a proposal to increase the frequency of the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), the statistics ministry’s quarterly assessment of the labour market, two officials have said.

Besides PLFS-based urban-jobs data on a three-monthly basis, the ministry currently also publishes an annual PLFS report that contains data on rural employment-unemployment scenarios. (Bloomberg)

On August 13, HT reported that the Rao Inderjit Singh-headed Union ministry of statistics and programme implementation had decided to conduct the PLFS more frequently than it currently does.

Besides PLFS-based urban-jobs data on a three-monthly basis, the ministry currently also publishes an annual PLFS report that contains data on rural employment-unemployment scenarios.

Lack of frequently available official data on India’s labour market tends to stymy policies and stock-taking of employment generation, analysts maintain. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), a private-sector data firm, is currently the only provider of monthly unemployment data. The firm however uses a wholly different statistical model from the one used by the government to assess unemployment.

“Both urban and rural employment and unemployment data will be available on a monthly basis from most likely around the beginning of the next fiscal year. It will fulfil a widely-felt need of government departments, state-level officials, economists and the industry,” one of the officials cited above said.

The methodology recommended by an expert panel for the monthly surveys will largely remain the same as the one employed for quarterly surveys, a second official said. The quarterly surveys gauge employment based on “current weekly status or CWS”.

A reference period of CWS means the PLFS considers a person employed if he or she had been engaged in any economic activity in the week prior to the survey and is particularly relevant for high-frequency data.

“I’m glad that the ministry of statistics and programme implementation has become an active ministry again under the leadership of secretary Saurabh Garg. There is a need to update a lot of things and evolve mechanism for better coordination since data are generated at multiple levels and across multiple departments,” NR Bhanumurthy, director of the Madras School of Economics, said.