Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) Quarterly Bulletin: January-March 2024

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 country-level LFPR for January-March 2024 quarter was 39.5 percent (up from 38.1 per cent in the same quarter the previous year). It was 58 per cent among men and 20.3 per cent among women.

In the same quarter (January-March 2024) in urban areas, Bihar recorded the lowest LFPRs among men and women at 47.6 per cent and 10.9 per cent respectively. On the other hand, the highest LFPRs were recorded in Himachal Pradesh – 64.8 per cent for men and 34.1 per cent for women.

The worker population ratio (WPR) is defined as the “percentage of workers in the population”. The overall WPR rose slightly from 45.2 per cent in January-March 2023 to 46.9 per cent in the same quarter in 2024.

The WPR for those aged 15 years and above was 46.9 per cent – 69.8 per cent for men and 23.4 per cent for women. In this age group, Himachal Pradesh registered the highest WPR for women at 34.2 per cent whereas Uttar Pradesh registered the lowest at 13.5 per cent. The WPR among men was highest in Himachal Pradesh at 76.3 per cent and lowest in Jharkhand at 63.2 per cent.

The PLFS outlines the percentage of workers across the three categories: self-employed, regular wage/salaried employee and casual labour. During the period of January-March 2024, most of the workers surveyed (48.7 per cent) were salaried employees or earned regular wages. Around 40.5 per cent were self-employed and 10.8 per cent were engaged in casual labour. Casual labour is defined as labour which is of “casual or seasonal or intermittent nature.”

Of the surveyed people under consideration (aged 15 years and above), 47.5 per cent men were salaried employees compared to 52.3 per cent of women. Those self-employed numbered 40.2 per cent among men compared to 41.3 per cent among women. As many as 12.3 per cent of male workers and 6.5 per cent of female workers were engaged in casual labour.

The survey also gives data about the distribution of workers across agricultural, secondary (mining and quarrying among others) and tertiary sectors. In the first quarter of 2024, 5.8 per cent people (4.5 per cent men and 9.8 per cent women) in urban areas, were employed in the agricultural sector. Around 32 per cent people (33.8 per cent men and 26.7 per cent women) were employed in the secondary sector. The majority of the people surveyed – 62.2 per cent – worked in the tertiary sector.

Comparing the worker distribution across sectors, the data shows that Delhi had the highest percentage of people (72.81 per cent) in the tertiary sector. Gujarat had the highest percentage of its worker population engaged in the secondary sector (44.17 per cent) whereas Madhya Pradesh had the highest in the primary sector (11.24 per cent).

Following the current weekly status approach, a person is considered unemployed if they have not worked even for an hour during the reference week but looked for work or were available for employment. The unemployment rate (UR) is the “percentage of unemployed persons in the labour force.” The UR for individuals aged 15 years and above declined slightly from 6.8 per cent in January–March 2023 to 6.7 per cent (6.1 per cent among men and 8.5 per cent among women) in 2024.

Among workers aged 15-29 years, the unemployment rate remained significantly higher at 17 per cent in January-March 2024. It was 15.1 per cent among the male labour force and 22.7 per cent among the female labour force.

Of the states and union territories for which the survey provides data, Kerala recorded the highest unemployment rate at 31.8 per cent during January-March 2024 among workers aged 15-29 years. It was followed by Jammu and Kashmir with a UR of 28.2 per cent. Delhi, on the other hand, recorded the lowest at 3.1 per cent.

Focus and Factoids by Tejaswini Sugumaran.