Take a look at the essential events, concepts, terms, quotes, or phenomena every day and brush up your knowledge. Here’s your UPSC Current Affairs knowledge nugget for today on Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS). The statistics ministry plans to make changes to its PLFS to better represent gig workers in its flagship labour market survey. Further changes have been proposed to understand the amount of unpaid household work done by family members and whether they want to do it. Understanding PLFS is important for UPSC exam (it has asked questions on labour productivity and unemployment), as it is India’s principal source of data on employment and unemployment, helping policymakers understand who is working, who is seeking work, and how people participate in the labour market.The proposed changes also highlight emerging issues such as gig work and unpaid household labour, relevant to the Indian Economy and inclusive growth.Key takeaways: 1. As part of the revamp, households will be asked whether any member of the family worked with a digital platform such as Ola, Uber, Zomato, Amazon, and Urban Company, among others, over the last 365 days. This question will help create a new class, or what is called a Second Stage Stratum (SSS). — Second Stage Stratum (SSS) is a statistical classification category used by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) to sub-sample households for its national surveys. Answering “yes” to the above question places that household into this new Second Stage Stratum (SSS). 2. MoSPI began collecting information on digital platform workers – a subset of gig workers – on an experimental basis from January 2026.3. The PLFS will also ask platform workers the goods or services they provide, whether they work for multiple platforms, what prompted them to take up platform work, and the major challenges they face in their line of work. Story continues below this adWhat is the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS)? 1. Up until 2011-12, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) used to release Employment-Unemployment Surveys (EUS). 2. But these were done once every five years. Then in 2017-18, MoSPI replaced the quinquennial EUS with the annual PLFS (Periodic Labour Force Survey). Story continues below this ad3. The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) under MoSPI had conducted the first PLFS for the year 2017-18. In 2019, NSSO was merged with the Central Statistical Office (CSO) to form the NSO.4. Monthly (since April 2025) bulletins provide details of labour force indicators such as Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR), and Unemployment Rate (UR). 5. Earlier, the MoSPI released rural PLFS data on an annual basis and urban PLFS data on a quarterly basis, along with an annual report that combines data for both urban and rural on an annual basis.6. The first monthly estimates, published by the National Statistical Office (NSO) for the month of April in 2025, are based on the current weekly status (CWS) approach. Story continues below this ad7. CWS measures the activity status of persons surveyed based on the reference period of the last seven days preceding the date of survey. (AI generated infographic)What are the recent changes in PLFS? 1. Since 2025, the PLFS’s annual reporting cycle has been changed; from treating July to June as a year to treating January to December as the year. 2. This shift will enable timely updation of India’s labour market statistics in the databases maintained by the international agencies.3. MoSPI also made some changes to the methodology of PLFS. The sample design has been improved and the sample size enlarged to 2,72,304 households — a 2.65 times increase. Story continues below this ad4. The district has been made the primary geographical unit — to ensure sample observations from most of the districts in the PLFS sample, which, in turn, will improve the representativeness of the estimates. BEYOND THE NUGGET: Key terms related to employment1. Employed: According to MoSPI, following the usual status approach (with a reference period of 365 days) adopted by NSSO a person in the labour force is considered as working or employed if he/she is engaged relatively for a longer time, during the reference period of last 365 days in any one or more of the work activities.2. Unemployment Rate (UR): Unemployment refers to the condition where individuals capable of working are actively seeking employment but are unable to secure suitable jobs. An unemployed person, then, is someone who is part of the labor force, possesses the requisite skills, but currently lacks gainful employment.— The unemployment in the country is commonly calculated using the formula:Story continues below this adUnemployment rate = [Number of Unemployed Workers / Total Labour Force] x 100.— Here, the ‘total labour force’ includes the employed and the unemployed. Those who are neither employed nor unemployed — students, for example— are not considered a part of the labour force.3. Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR): Labour force participation rate refers to the part of the population that 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. Under the CWS approach, labour force refers to the number of persons either employed or unemployed on an average in a week before the date of the survey. LFPR is defined as the number of persons/ person-days in the labour force per 1000 persons /person-days.4. Worker Population Rate (WPR): Under the CWS, the WPR refers to the number of persons who worked for at least one hour on any day during the days preceding the date of the survey. According to MoSPI, it is defined as the number of persons/person-days employed per 1000 persons/person-days.Story continues below this ad5. Work Force: According to MoSPI, “Persons engaged in any gainful activity are considered ‘workers’ (or employed). They are the persons assigned any one or more of the nine activity categories under the first broad activity category i.e. “working or employed”.”Post Read QuestionConsider the following pairs related to labour market indicators:IndicatorWhat it measures1. Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR)Employed and unemployed persons as a proportion of the population.2. Worker Population Ratio (WPR)Employed persons as a proportion of the population.3. Unemployment Rate (UR)Unemployed persons as a proportion of the total populationWhich of the pairs given above are correctly matched?(a) 1 and 2 only(b) 2 and 3 only(c) 1 and 3 only(d) 1, 2 and 3Answer: (a)(Sources: To better capture gig and household work, government plans changes to labour survey, Knowledge Nugget: What are key highlights of Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) and why is it UPSC essential, Labour Force Survey has an update. It’s a welcome one)Story continues below this ad Click here to read the UPSC Essentials magazine for October 2026. Share your views and suggestions in the comment box or write to us at manas.srivastava@indianexpress.com.Subscribe to our UPSC newsletter. Stay updated with the latest UPSC articles by joining our Telegram channel – Indian Express UPSC Hub, and follow us on Instagram and X