Periodic Labour Force Survey
In one line: The PLFS is India's main official survey of employment, run by the National Sample Survey Office under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
What it is
The PLFS was launched in 2017 to give regular labour data, replacing the older five-yearly employment and unemployment rounds. It produces estimates of LFPR, WPR and unemployment by age, sex and rural or urban area.
The 2025 redesign
According to the National Statistics Office, the sampling design was revamped from January 2025 to meet the need for high-frequency labour indicators. Since then it produces monthly estimates for rural and urban India on Current Weekly Status. The first monthly bulletin, for April 2025, was released on 15 May 2025. The August 2026 bulletin, released on 15 September 2026, was based on 3,70,160 persons: 2,11,353 in rural and 1,58,807 in urban areas.
Where to go next
- Current Weekly Status and Usual Status
- Women's labour force participation
Periodic Labour Force Survey in the news
- Op-ed: India's factories are growing, but not creating jobs at the scale needed 2 October 2026
The main survey that tells us where Indians work.
- Towards recognising women as farmers 23 September 2026
How India counts workers
- Unemployment steady at 5% in August 2026 as rural rate falls to 4.1%, says PLFS 16 September 2026
how India's main jobs survey works
Previous-year questions on this
- 2023 · GS2 · 15 marks Skill development programs have succeeded in increasing human resources supply to various sectors. In the context of the statement analyze the linkages between education, skill and employment.
- 2022 · GS2 · 15 marks Besides the welfare schemes, India needs deft management of inflation and unemployment to serve the poor and the underprivileged sections of the society. Discuss.
- 2021 · GS3 · 10 marks How did land reforms in some parts of the country help to improve the socio-economic conditions of marginal and small farmers?
- 2017 · GS3 · 10 marks Account for the failure of manufacturing sector in achieving the goal of labour-intensive exports rather than capital-intensive exports. Suggest measures for more labour-intensive rather than…
- 2017 · GS3 · 15 marks "Industrial growth rate has lagged behind in the overall growth of Gross-Domestic-Product (GDP) in the post-reform period" Give reasons. How far the recent changes in Industrial Policy are capable…
- 2016 · GS3 · 12.5 marks How globalization has led to the reduction of employment in the formal sector of the Indian economy? Is increased informalization detrimental to the development of the country?
- 2014 · GS1 · 10 marks Discuss the various economic and socio-cultural forces that are driving the increasing feminization of agriculture in India.