Unemployment rate stood at 13.3% in September 2020 quarter: NSO survey

NEW DELHI: As the country grappled with the first wave of Covid-19 cases and subsequent nationwide lockdowns to curb its spread, unemployment rate rose to 13.3 per cent in the second quarter of financial year 2020-21.
According to a periodic labour force survey (PLFS) by the National Statistical Office (NSO), unemployment rate stood at 13.3 per cent in July-September quarter last year as compared to 8.4 per cent posted in the same quarter in the year ago period.
The NSO brings out a quarterly bulletin of PLFS survey giving out estimates of labour force participation like unemployment rate (UR), worker population ratio (WPR), labour force participation rate (LFPR) and more.
Unemployment rate
Joblessness or unemployment rate (UR) is the percentage of unemployed persons in the labour force.
The estimates of unemployed in CWS give an average picture of unemployment in a short period of 7 days during the survey period.
According to the current weekly status (CWS) approach, a person was considered as unemployed in a week if he/she did not work even for 1 hour on any day during the reference week but sought or was available for work at least for 1 hour on any day during the reference week.

Labour force participation rate
Labour force refers to part of the population which supplies or offers to supply labour for pursuing economic activities for the production of goods and services. It includes both employed and unemployed persons.
LFPR is the percentage of population that is present in the labour force.
The survey showed that during the period under consideration, labour force participation rate for all ages was 37 per cent. This was higher than 36.8 per cent recorded in the same period a year ago and also higher than 35.9 per cent reported in the preceding April-June 2020 quarter.

Worker population ratio (WPR)
It is the percentage of workers in population. The estimates of unemployed persons in CWS give an average picture of unemployment in a short period of 7 days during the survey period.

In the CWS approach, a person is considered unemployed if he/she did not work even for 1 hour on any day during the week but sought or was available for work at least for 1 hour on any day during the period.
As per the survey, WPR stood at 32.1 per cent in July-September 2020, down from 33.7 per cent in the same period a year ago. It was 28.4 per cent in April-June 2020.
(With inputs from PTI)