PERIODIC LABOUR FORCE SURVEY

Subject : Current Events

Context: Only 2.4% of India’s workforce is formally trained as per the Periodic Labour Force Survey of 2018-19.

Concept:

Ministry cites contractors’ preference to employ informal workers on lower wages in contrast to government’s push to train and certify skilled workers
All workers executing government contracts must have official certification for their skills, the government has decided.

What is PLFS?

PLFS is India’s first computer-based survey which gives estimates of key employment and unemployment indicators like the labour force participation rate, worker population ratio, proportion unemployed and unemployment rate in rural households annually and on a quarterly basis for the urban households.
The PLFS also gives the distribution of educated and unemployed people, which in turn can be used as a basis for skilling of youth to make them more employable by industry.
The survey was launched in 2017 and the first annual report was released (July 2017-June 2018), covering both rural and urban areas, in May 2019.

Definitions:

Labour Force Participation Rate: It is the percentage of people in the labour force (those who are working or seeking or available for work) in the population.
Worker Population Ratio is the percentage of employed people.
Unemployment rate shows the percentage of people unemployed among the labour force.
Unemployed: A person who is unable to get work for even an hour in the last seven days despite seeking employment is considered unemployed.