Jobs Data and Its Discontent

Context:

• The GDP and Employment data is one of the important indicators to assess the economic growth in a country. However, the Pre Covid and Post Covid data analysis is missing for that term.

Concern related to reliable data:

• Delayed survey and durations: In 2017-18, the NSO launched its periodic labour force survey (PLFS) with the promise that a timely quarterly employment series would be made available for urban areas, and an annual all-India series, but failed to keep its promise.
• Lack of technology inclusion: Despite India being amongst the top two economies in the world for computer software, and the leading economy in terms of financial payments technology, though the data collection is slow and constant.
• Less involvement of stakeholders’: The time taken from the end of survey collection to tabulation/publication has been reduced to less than a month. Yet MOSPI is finding it difficult to release collected and processed data on time.