Changes in PLFS schedule and estimation procedure from January 2027 - inviting comments thereon

The NSO plans to revise the Periodic Labour Force Survey from January 2027. The changes affect both sampling and the survey schedule. They aim to improve coverage, make estimates more reliable, and reflect changes in urbanisation, districts, and labour-market activity.

A new Second Stage Stratum will identify households connected with digital platform work. The updated frame will reflect the Urban Frame Survey, new urban areas, administrative changes, and follow-up updating of the rural Census 2011 frame. Sample allocation and stratification rules will also be refined.

The first three months will combine First Stage Units from Panel 5 and new Panel 6 frames. Monthly bulletins will publish pooled estimates from both frames, but not Relative Standard Error estimates. The survey will also add questions on digital platform work and unpaid activities, beginning with January 2027.

The Periodic Labour Force Survey is a nationwide statistical survey conducted by the National Statistics Office under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. It tracks how people participate in the labour market. This makes it important for monitoring employment conditions and planning policies.

Its measures include whether people are working, seeking work, or available for work. From these responses, PLFS can produce indicators such as the labour-force participation rate, worker population ratio, and unemployment rate. The survey also collects information relevant to education, skilling, and, experimentally, digital platform work.

PLFS has evolved since it began in 2017. The sampling design was revamped from January 2025 to provide monthly, quarterly, and annual estimates. It also supports estimates at sub-state level. The proposed changes would widen coverage of digital platform workers and unpaid activities.

The survey’s estimation system is intended to provide labour-market information at several time scales and geographic levels. Since the January 2025 redesign, PLFS has aimed to produce monthly, quarterly, and annual estimates, including indicators at sub-state level. This gives users more frequent and locally detailed information.

For the proposed design, selected First Stage Units will contain 14 canvassed households. In rural areas, four Second Stage Strata will be used, while urban areas will have five. The article does not state the total number of First Stage Units or households nationwide, so the overall sample size cannot be calculated from the provided information.

During January to March 2027, estimates will pool samples from the older Panel 5 frame and updated Panel 6 frame. Monthly bulletins will continue, but Relative Standard Error estimates will not be presented for those three months.

Digital platform workers can be difficult to capture through a general household sample. The article states that PLFS 2026 did not obtain an adequate number under the existing arrangement. The NSO therefore proposes a separate Second Stage Stratum based on digital platform work.

The survey will first add a binary question in Schedule 0.0PL. It will ask whether any household member engaged in digital platform work during the specified reference period. This question will be asked in both rural and urban households. Eligible households can then help form the new digital-platform-worker stratum.

The proposed arrangement retains the existing Second Stage Stratum structure and composition while adding the new group. Rural areas will have four strata and urban areas five, with 14 households canvassed per selected First Stage Unit. The aim is better coverage and more comprehensive labour-market data.

The three-month transition is designed to prevent a break in the PLFS time series when the sampling frame changes. From January 2027, the survey will be moving from the Panel 5 frame to the updated Panel 6 frame. Using both temporarily helps maintain continuity in monthly and quarterly releases.

For example, a monthly bulletin in this period will use First Stage Units drawn from both frames. The resulting estimate will be pooled across the two sources, rather than being based only on the new frame. This creates a bridge while the updated design begins operating.

The transition applies for the first three months, from January 2027. Monthly estimates will still be presented, and the approach supports continued quarterly estimates. However, Relative Standard Error estimates will not be presented for these three months, according to the proposed procedure.

Unpaid household production, caregiving, volunteering, and training can involve substantial activity even when no wage is received. Recording them gives labour statistics a broader picture of how people spend time and contribute to households and communities. This is the general measurement purpose of such questions; the provided excerpt does not state a detailed NSO rationale.

The article says new questions have been added to Schedule 10.4 on own-use production of goods and unpaid household and care activities. The question prompt also identifies volunteering and unpaid training as additions. These responses would distinguish unpaid activities from paid employment and help describe activities that ordinary job questions may miss.

The changes are part of the proposed PLFS schedule revisions from January 2027. Alongside questions identifying digital platform workers, they would expand the survey’s coverage of work-related activity. The article does not specify how these answers will affect published indicators or estimates.

A sampling frame is the source list or structure from which survey units are selected. If it misses new settlements, changed districts, or parts of a growing population, the resulting statistics may underrepresent them. Estimation procedures then determine how selected responses are weighted and combined to describe the wider population.

For PLFS Panel 6, the updated frame will reflect the Urban Frame Survey, urbanisation and de-urbanisation, administrative changes, and follow-up updating of the rural Census 2011 frame. Revised allocation and stratification rules will help distribute the sample across population variations. These mechanisms connect the sample with current population patterns.

The article expects this to improve representation, coverage, reliability, and relevance, especially for the urban population. It also aims to reduce operational difficulties during selection. The temporary use of both frames in early 2027 provides continuity while the new procedure is introduced.