Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) Annual Report: July 2019-June 2020

Among the households surveyed, 53.2 per cent of rural households derived their income from some sort of ‘self-employment’ as compared to 30.7 per cent of urban households. On the other hand, 12.9 per cent of rural households derived their income from regular salary or wages compared to 43.1 per cent of urban households.

A quarter (24.8 per cent) of rural households depended significantly on casual labour as compared to 11.5 per cent of urban households.

The ‘labour force’ is the share of the population “which supplies or offers to supply labour for pursuing economic activities” and thus includes both employed and unemployed people. The labour force participation rate (LFPR) measures the share of labour force within a population. The LFPR for persons of all ages was 40.1 per cent (as per usual status) and 38.3 per cent (as per current weekly status).

As per usual status, the LFPR in rural areas was 24.7 per cent among females and 56.3 per cent among males. In urban areas, the figures were 18.5 per cent for females and 57.8 per cent for males.

The worker population ratio (WPR) is termed as the “percentage of workers in the population”. The WPR in 2019-20 for persons of all ages (as per usual status) was 38.2 per cent – 53.9 per cent among males and 21.8 per cent among males.

The WPR among those aged 15 years and above was 50.9 per cent – 73 per cent among males and 28.7 per cent among females. In this age group, the WPR was found to be higher among people in rural India (53.3 per cent) than in urban India (45.8 per cent).

The PLFS also outlines the percentage of workers across three categories: self-employed, regular wage/salaried employee and casual labour. During the period of July 2019-June 2020, more than half (53.5 per cent) of the people surveyed were self-employed. Around 22.9 per cent earned regular wages or salaries and 23.6 per cent were casual labourers.

A higher percentage of workers in rural India were self employed (58.4 per cent males and 63 per cent females) compared to those earning regular salaries and wages (13.8 per cent males and 9.5 per cent females). In urban areas, more people were salaried (47.2 per cent males and 54.2 per cent females) than self-employed (38.7 per cent males and 34.6 per cent females).

As per current weekly status, the average number of hours a worker worked for in a week (during July 2019 to June 2020) were 39-46 hours in rural areas and 30-54 hours in urban areas.

Among employees who earned regular salaries or wages, 67.3 per cent had no written job contracts. As many as 52.3 per cent of such employees were not eligible for paid leave and 54.2 per cent were ineligible for any social security benefits.

The unemployment rate (UR) is the “percentage of unemployed persons in the labour force.” The country-level UR (as per usual status) among persons of all ages was 4.8 per cent. It was four per cent in rural areas (4.5 per cent among males and 2.6 per cent among females) and seven per cent in urban areas (6.4 per cent among males and 8.9 per cent among females).

The UR (as per usual status) among those aged 15-29 years was higher – 15 per cent (15.1 per cent among males and 14.6 per cent among females). It was also higher in urban areas (19.9 per cent) than in rural areas (12.9 per cent).

Focus and Factoids by Sheetal Bhopal.