Periodic Labour Force Survey(PLFS)2022-23
PLFS 2022-23 showed a significant increase in the Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) for both rural and urban areas.
PLFS is published by the National Statistical Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).
The LFPR for rural areas increased from 50.7% in 2017-18 to 60.8% in 2022-23, while the LFPR for urban areas increased from 47.6% to 50.4%.
The increase in LFPR was driven by both males and females.
The male LFPR increased from 75.8% in 2017-18 to 78.5% in 2022-23, while the female LFPR increased from 23.3% to 37.0%.
The increase in LFPR is a positive development for the Indian economy.
It indicates that more people are entering the workforce and contributing to the economy.
The PLFS data showed that the proportion of regular workers has declined in recent years.
This suggests that a growing number of people are finding jobs in the informal sector, which is often characterized by low wages and poor working conditions.
Indian labor market's recent performance
Between April-June 2019 and April-June 2023, covering the period before the onset of the pandemic.
The PLFS collects information on the earnings of regular wage workers, casual workers and the self-employed .
PLFS looks at the monthly wage earnings of regular wage workers, and the gross earnings of the previous month for the self-employed.
For casual workers, average daily wages are converted to monthly figures.
Indian labor market's recent performance
The earnings for urban and rural workers were deflated by the urban and rural CPI for those periods separately.
Between 2019 and 2023, only casual workers both men and women, across both rural and urban sectors saw a net increase in their average real monthly earnings.
Women casual workers experienced a 13% increase across the entire period.
While male casual workers enjoyed a 10.33% increase.
Indian labor market's recent performance
Significant inflation over this period ate away at the gains of workers, resulting in lesser real earnings for most workers in 2023 as compared to the pre-pandemic period.
Urban male self-employed workers saw a reduction in real earnings.
while rural male self-employed workers saw real earnings increase by roughly 14.67% in 2023.
In the case of regular wage workers, urban women saw a reduction in earnings by 2.34%.
Rural women in regular wage employment earned the highest gains of all real earnings 27.5%.
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