Business · Economy · 17 hrs ago
India to revise labour survey to count platform work and unpaid activities
India plans to revise its Periodic Labour Force Survey from January 2027 to improve how it measures work.
The survey will add a separate group to identify households with at least one digital platform worker, such as someone doing work through a digital platform.
It will also ask about unpaid household, caregiving, volunteer and trainee work, as well as making goods for a household's own use; these questions will cover people aged 15 and above.
These activities have not been measured separately in the survey, even though unpaid household and care work contributes to family life and can support other people’s paid employment.
The survey will use an updated sampling frame, and the first three months will combine old and new samples to maintain continuity in monthly and quarterly estimates.
The government is seeking public and expert feedback within 15 days, and the changes are planned for the new 2027–2028 survey period.
India plans to revise its Periodic Labour Force Survey from January 2027 to better track digital platform workers and unpaid work.
The revised survey will add a separate sampling group for households with at least one digital platform worker.
New questions will cover unpaid household and caregiving work, volunteer activities, unpaid trainee work and own-use production of goods.
The changes also update sampling frames and criteria to reflect population and administrative changes.
The government has invited comments on the proposed changes within 15 days of the press note’s publication.
- Who
- India’s National Sample Survey Office, under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, is proposing the changes.
- What
- The Periodic Labour Force Survey will be revised to capture platform work, unpaid activities and labour underutilisation.
- When
- The revised sampling design is planned to start in January 2027.
- Where
- India.
- Why
- To improve the survey’s coverage of platform workers and unpaid work, and better represent population changes.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
The government issued a press release and concept note describing proposed changes to the PLFS.
Policymakers, researchers, academic institutions and the public can submit comments and suggestions.
The revised sampling design is due to begin, with a three-month transition using samples from both the existing and updated frames.
The new samples will be drawn for the two-year period known as Panel 6.
- Start date
- January 2027
- Rural sampling groups
- Four Second Stage Strata
- Urban sampling groups
- Five Second Stage Strata
- Households canvassed
- 14 in each selected First Stage Unit
- Comment period
- 15 days from publication of the press note
- Transition period
- Three months, starting January 2027
5 sources
Periodic Labour Force Survey to expand coverage to capture unpaid household, volunteers from January 2027
Government to modify labour survey to capture gig economy, unpaid household workers
PLFS to expand coverage of platform workers and unpaid work from January
What people are saying
This revision in SSS formation is expected to improve the coverage of digital platform workers and facilitate more comprehensive data collection on this emerging segment of the labour market
While such activities contribute significantly to household well-being and facilitate the participation of other household members in paid employment, they have not been measured separately in PLFS until now
The new arrangement would improve the coverage of digital platform workers and support more detailed data collection on the emerging segment of the labour market