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This is an archive article published on April 24, 2015
Fund crunch pushes new job survey plan to the back burner
The ministry estimates that the exercise requires about Rs 90 crore.
In a setback to attempts to get more frequent and regular data on the employment situation in the country, a proposal by the ministry if statistics to carry out quarterly and annual employment surveys across the country is set to be shelved, at least for this fiscal, due to a lack funds.
“It is on hold as of now because there are no funds available for it,” said an official familiar with the development, adding that the ministry is trying to find alternatives.
The surveys to be conducted by the National Sample and Survey Organisation (NSSO) would be carried out at an all-India level as well as for the rural economy. The ministry estimates that the exercise requires about Rs 90 crore and would require hiring 300 to 400 field investigators to collect data from across the country but contends that funds have not been allocated in the Union Budget 2015-16.
According to the Budget documents, Rs 4,826.87 crore have been allocated to the ministry of statistics and programme implementation in the current fiscal as against Rs 4,923.88 budgeted for 2014-15.
Conceived more than half-a-decade ago, the surveys, known as the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), is based on a recommendation of the National Statistical Commission to measure labour force participation and gauge the impact of economic policies on the domestic labour market.
The new surveys would bridge a wide deficit in the country’s statistical bank, which does not have any regular data on employment growth. At present, employment data comes from two main sources — the NSSO and the labour bureau.
While the NSSO carries out a quinquennial survey of employment and unemployment across the country as part of its household socio-economic survey, the labour bureau under the ministry of labour and employment has been carrying out quarterly surveys on job losses in eight specific sectors since 2009 as well as an annual all India employment survey since 2010-11.
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