Pariksha SaathiPLFS to get a separate stratum for digital platform workers and new questions on unpaid work from January 2027; MoSPI invites comments
The National Statistics Office (NSO) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation proposed on 23 October 2026 to modify the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), conducted since 2017, from January 2027, when fresh samples for 2027-2028 (Panel 6) will be drawn from an updated sampling frame; comments are invited within 15 days. Because PLFS 2026 did not capture enough digital platform workers, a new Second Stage Stratum based on platform work will be added - giving four strata in rural and five in urban areas, with 14 households canvassed in each selected First Stage Unit - and a question in Block 5 of Schedule 0.0PL will identify such households. New questions in Schedule 10.4 will cover own-use production of goods, unpaid household and caregiving activities, volunteer work and unpaid trainee work for persons aged 15 and above. The survey's sampling design was revamped from January 2025 to provide monthly, quarterly and annual estimates.
Drafted with AI assistance from the official PIB release linked above and checked against it by a second AI pass. Not line-edited by a human.
Learning context
The sampling design of the PLFS was revamped from January 2025. Under the monthly rotational panel scheme adopted for both rural and urban areas, each selected household is visited four times in four consecutive months - once with the first-visit schedule and three times with the revisit schedule. On 14 May 2025 the NSO announced that, with this, key labour force indicators at the all-India level would be released every month and quarterly results brought out for rural, urban and combined areas.
Check yourself: from when was the PLFS design revamped, and how often is a selected household visited under it?
From January 2025; four times, in four consecutive months.
Revision task: from this release, note when the changes start, the new panel and its years, the comment period, the new stratum and its counts, and the two schedules that change; from the note, when the design was revamped, how the rotational panel works and what the NSO said would be released monthly.
Test yourself
From when will the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) have a separate Second Stage Stratum for digital platform workers, as proposed by the NSO in October 2026?
Show the answer
Answer: January 2027
The NSO proposes the change from January 2027, when fresh samples for 2027-2028 (Panel 6) will be drawn from an updated sampling frame; information on digital platform workers has been collected experimentally since January 2026.
Read the daily collection → · Editorial standards & corrections