Unemployment rate at 9.3%

Subject – Economy

Context – Unemployment rate at 9.3% in January-March 2021, shows NSO survey

Concept –

Unemployment rate for persons of age 15 years and above in urban areas rose to 9.3 per cent in January-March 2021 from 9.1 per cent in the same month of the previous year, showed a periodic labour force survey by the National Statistical Office (NSO).
Joblessness or unemployment rate (UR) is defined as the percentage of unemployed persons in the labour force.
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.
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.
- Labour force according to CWS is the number of persons either employed or unemployed on an average in a week preceding the date of survey.
LFPR is defined as the percentage of population in the labour force.

To know more about Unemployment, please refer September 2021 DPN.