Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) Quarterly Bulletin: October-December 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) calculates the share of labour force within a population. The all-India LFPR (as per the current weekly status) for all ages was 39.6 per cent in the October-December 2024 quarter. The LFPR among men and women was 58.5 and 20 per cent, respectively.

The same quarter saw Bihar recording the lowest LFPR of 30.7 – 49.6 per cent among men and 9.9 per cent among women. On the other hand, Himachal Pradesh recorded the highest with 47.2 per cent – 61.1 per cent among men and 31.1 per cent among women.

The worker population ratio (WPR) is the “percentage of workers in the population”. The country-wide WPR for people aged 15 years and above in the third quarter of 2024 was 47.2 per cent – 70.9 per cent among men and 23.2 per cent among women.

In the 15 years and above age category, Bihar had the lowest female WPR at 12.5 per cent and Tamil Nadu the highest at 29.8 per cent, in the concerned quarter. Male WPR was lowest in Delhi at 62 per cent and highest in Gujarat at 77.4 per cent.

The PLFS outlines the percentage of workers across the three categories: self-employed, regular wage/salaried employee and casual labour. Self-employed workers are further categorised as own account workers/employers and unpaid helpers in households. In the October-December 2024 quarter, of all persons aged 15 years and above, 49.4 per cent were salaried employees or earned regular wages. Around 39.9 per cent were self-employed, and 10.7 per cent were casual labourers. Casual labour is defined as labour which is of “casual or seasonal or intermittent nature.”

In the same quarter, 47.7 per cent men were salaried employees compared to 54.8 per cent women. About 40.1 per cent men were self-employed compared to 39.2 per cent women. And 12.2 per cent men were engaged in casual labour compared to six per cent women.

The survey also gives data about the distribution of workers across agricultural, secondary (mining and quarrying among others) and tertiary sectors. Of the total workers, 5.5 per cent were employed in the agriculture sector, 31.8 per cent in the secondary sector and 62.7 in the tertiary sector. A higher per centage of women worked in the agriculture and tertiary sectors (9.6 and 65 per cent respectively) than men (4.2 and 62 per cent respectively). The figures were opposite in the secondary sector where the percentage of men was higher than that of women – 33.8 per cent compared to 25.5 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 among workers of all ages was found to be 6.4 per cent in the October-December 2024 quarter – 5.9 per cent among men and 8.1 per cent among women.

The unemployment rate among people aged 15-29 years was much higher – 16.1 per cent. It was higher among women (21.4 per cent) than among men (14.4 per cent).

Among workers of all ages, Jammu & Kashmir has the highest UR of 13.1 per cent. It was followed by Himachal Pradesh (10.4 per cent) and Rajasthan (9.7 per cent). Gujarat, on the other hand, had the lowest overall UR of three per cent.

Focus and Factoids by Barkha Budhiraja.