National Statistical Office

The National Statistical Office (NSO) is the office under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation that produces major official statistics about India’s economy and society. Its employment-statistics mandate includes designing and conducting household surveys, compiling estimates, and publishing comparable indicators of employment, unemployment and labour-force participation.

Institutional mandate

The NSO operates under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI). Its role extends beyond counting workers: it establishes survey concepts, sampling methods and estimation procedures so that employment statistics can support policymaking and economic analysis.

• It collects information through sample surveys, rather than a continuous census of every worker.
• It publishes estimates and methodological documentation so that users can understand the coverage, definitions and limitations of the results.

The principal employment survey

The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), launched in April 2017, is the NSO’s principal household survey for measuring employment and unemployment. It provides information on labour-market participation and the characteristics of employment in rural and urban India.

• It supports analysis by sex, age, education and other population characteristics, including comparisons of women’s and men’s labour-market participation.
• It distinguishes self-employed persons, regular wage or salaried employees, and casual labourers, allowing analysis beyond the employed-unemployed divide.
• Its household-based coverage captures informal and self-employed work that establishment records or formal-sector payroll data alone cannot fully describe.

Core indicators and reference periods

PLFS indicators must be read with their population group and reference period. Two important approaches are usual status and current weekly status.

• The labour force participation rate (LFPR) is the percentage of the population that is employed or unemployed.
• The worker population ratio (WPR) is the percentage of the population that is employed.
• The unemployment rate (UR) is the percentage of the labour force that is unemployed, not the percentage of the total population.
• Usual status uses a reference period of the preceding 365 days and considers principal and subsidiary activities; current weekly status uses the preceding seven days.

Interpreting employment estimates

For analysing women’s work, employment status must be distinguished from job quality. Employment can include unpaid work as a helper in a household enterprise, whereas routine domestic duties within one’s own household are not counted as employment.

• A low unemployment rate alone does not establish strong employment outcomes; it must be read alongside participation, the worker population ratio and the nature of work.
• Comparisons across states or population groups should use consistent age groups, reference periods and survey definitions.