Unemployment rate at 9.3% in January-March 2021: NSO survey

Labour force refers to the part of the population which supplies or offers to supply labour for pursuing economic activities for the production of goods and services and therefore, includes both employed and unemployed persons.

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NSO launched PLFS in April 2017. On the basis of PLFS, a quarterly bulletin is brought out giving estimates of labour force indicators namely UR, Worker Population Ratio (WPR), Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), distribution of workers by broad status in employment and industry of work in Current Weekly Status (CWS). The estimates of unemployed persons in CWS give an average picture of unemployment in a short period of seven days during the survey period.

In the CWS approach, a person is considered unemployed if he/she did not work even for one hour on any day during the week but sought or was available for work at least for one hour on any day during the period. The Labour force according to CWS is the number of persons either employed or unemployed on an average in a week preceding the date of the survey. LFPR is defined as the percentage of the population in the labour force.

WPR (in percent) in CWS in urban areas for persons of age 15 years and above stood at 43.1 percent in January-March 2021, down from 43.7 percent in the same period a year ago. It was 42.4 percent in October-December 2020. Nine bulletins of PLFS corresponding to quarters ended December 2018, March 2019, June 2019, September 2019, December 2019, March 2020, June 2020, September 2020 and December 2020 have already been released. The latest bulletin is the tenth in the series.