• Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) in Current Weekly Status (CWS) among persons of age 15 years and above was 55.6% during April, 2025. LFPR in rural areas was 58.0% and LFPR in urban areas was 50.7% for during April, 2025 for persons of the same age group.
• LFPR in CWS for male of age 15 years and above in rural and urban areas were respectively 79.0% and 75.3% during April, 2025.
• LFPR among female of age 15 years and above for rural areas was 38.2% during April, 2025.
• Worker Population Ratio (WPR) in CWS in rural areas among persons of age 15 years and above was 55.4%. WPR in urban areas among persons of the same age group was 47.4% with the overall WPR at the country level observed as 52.8% during April, 2025.
• WPR for female of age 15 years and above for rural and urban areas were respectively 36.8% and 23.5% in April, 2025 and the overall female WPR of the same age group at the country level was observed as 32.5%
• Unemployment Rate (UR) in CWS in among persons of age 15 years and above was 5.1% in April, 2025. The male UR was a touch higher at 5.2% compared to the female UR of 5.0% at the country level.

A.         Introduction

Considering the need for generation of high frequency labour force indicators with enhanced coverage the sampling methodology of Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) has been revamped from January 2025. The revamped PLFS design is envisaged to address the following objectives:

• to estimate the key employment and unemployment indicators (viz. Labour Force Participation Rate, Worker   Population Ratio and Unemployment Rate) on a monthly basis for rural and urban areas in the Current Weekly Status (CWS[1]) at all India level

· to extend the coverage of the Quarterly results of PLFS to rural areas and thereby producing quarterly estimates covering both rural and urban parts of India in the Current Weekly Status (CWS)

· to estimate important employment and unemployment indicators in both usual status[2] (ps+ss) and CWS in both rural and urban areas annually.

The monthly results are planned to be released in the form of Monthly Bulletins of PLFS. The present Monthly Bulletin is the first in the series for the month April, 2025.

B.         Sample Design of PLFS

A rotational panel sampling design has been adopted in PLFS for both rural and urban areas from January, 2025.  In this rotational panel scheme, each selected household is visited four times in four consecutive months – one with first visit schedule and other three with the revisit schedule. The scheme of rotation ensures that 75% of the first-stage sampling units (FSUs) are matched between two consecutive months.

C.         Sample Size

At the all-India level, a total number of 7,511 FSUs (4,140 census village or sub-unit as the case may be for rural areas and 3,371 UFS block or sub-unit as the case may be in urban areas) have been surveyed during the quarter April, 2025. The number of households surveyed was 89,434 (49,323 in rural areas and 40,111 in urban areas) and number of persons surveyed was 3,80,838 (2,17,483 in rural areas and 1,63,355 in urban areas)

 

1. Conceptual Framework of Key Employment and Unemployment Indicators for the Quarterly Bulletin: The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) gives estimates of key employment and unemployment Indicators like the Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR), Unemployment Rate (UR), etc. These indicators, and ‘Current Weekly Status’ are defined as follows:

 

1. Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR): LFPR is defined as the percentage of persons in labour force (i.e. working or seeking or available for work) in the population.

 

2. Worker Population Ratio (WPR): WPR is defined as the percentage of employed persons in the population.

 

3. Unemployment Rate (UR): UR is defined as the percentage of persons unemployed among the persons in the labour force.

 

4. Current Weekly Status (CWS): The activity status determined on the basis of a reference period of last 7 days preceding the date of survey is known as the current weekly status (CWS) of the person.

 

The Monthly Bulletin for the month April 2025 is available at the website of the Ministry (https://mospi.gov.in). The key results are given in the statements annexed.

D. Comparability of monthly estimates with previously released estimates of PLFS

The sample design of the Periodic Labour Survey (PLFS) has been revamped from January 2025. As part of revamping of the sample design monthly rotational panel scheme has been implemented for both rural and urban areas wherein each selected household is visited four times in four consecutive months – one with first visit schedule and other three with the revisit schedule in the following three months. The aspects related to the multistage stratified design followed in PLFS like the choice of First stage Units (FSU) to be surveyed, the primary geographical unit (i.e. basic stratum) from which FSUs are selected, stratification rules applied to FSUs and sampling selection method for selecting FSUs have been changed. The number of households to be surveyed within a selected FSU has been increased from 8 to 12 households.

In addition, some changes have also been incorporated in the structure of the Schedule of inquiry. The details of the revamped PLFS sample design and changes made in the Schedule of inquiry have been provided in the PLFS release titled PLFS: Changes in 2025.  Users of PLFS results need to consider the changes implemented in PLFS from January 2025 while comparing PLFS results with estimates released through PLFS publications up to December, 2024. The results of the PLFS post January 2025 thus need to be understood and used in the context with which the sample selection methodology of PLFS has been designed.

Annexure

Key Findings of PLFS, Monthly Bulletin (April 2025)

1. Labour Force Participation Rate (in per cent) in CWS for persons of age 15 years and above during April 2025
sector	age group	male	female	person
rural	15-29 years	63.5	23.8	43.4
	15 years and above	79.0	38.2	58.0
	all ages	57.5	28.8	42.9
urban	15-29 years	59.1	21.5	41.2
	15 years and above	75.3	25.7	50.7
	all ages	58.5	20.5	39.9
rural + urban	15-29 years	62.0	23.1	42.7
	15 years and above	77.7	34.2	55.6
	all ages	57.8	26.2	42.0

 

2. Worker Population Ratio (in per cent) in CWS for persons of age 15 years and above during April 2025
sector	age group	male	female	person
rural	15-29 years	55.3	21.2	38.0
	15 years and above	75.1	36.8	55.4
	all ages	54.7	27.7	41.0
urban	15-29 years	50.2	16.4	34.1
	15 years and above	71.0	23.5	47.4
	all ages	55.1	18.7	37.3
rural + urban	15-29 years	53.6	19.8	36.8
	15 years and above	73.7	32.5	52.8
	all ages	54.8	24.9	39.8

 

3.Unemployment Rate (in per cent) in CWS for persons of age 15 years and above during April 2025
sector	age group	male	female	person
rural	15-29 years	13.0	10.7	12.3
	15 years and above	4.9	3.9	4.5
	all ages	4.9	3.8	4.5
urban	15-29 years	15.0	23.7	17.2
	15 years and above	5.8	8.7	6.5
	all ages	5.8	8.7	6.5
rural + urban	15-29 years	13.6	14.4	13.8
	15 years and above	5.2	5.0	5.1
	all ages	5.2	5.0	5.1

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Samrat/Allen

(Release ID: 2128833)