MoSPI proposes PLFS changes from 2027: separate stratum for gig workers, new questions on unpaid work
Key facts
- On 23 October 2026, the National Statistics Office under MoSPI released a press note proposing changes to the Periodic Labour Force Survey from January 2027.
- Households with digital platform workers (Ola, Uber, Zomato, Amazon and similar) will form a separate Second Stage Stratum, so more of them enter the sample.
- New questions will cover unpaid work: own-use production, household and caregiving work, volunteer work and unpaid trainee work, for persons aged 15 and above.
- Fresh 2027-28 samples will come from an updated frame with new districts and urban areas. Comments are open until about 7 November 2026.
Why it matters
[Data] PLFS is the official source of India's unemployment and labour-force participation figures, and it is asked almost every year. The redesign matters because gig work and unpaid care work are the two biggest blind spots in current data. MoSPI has collected platform-worker data only on an experimental basis since January 2026. A 2022 NITI Aayog report put gig workers at 77 lakh in 2020-21, rising to 2.35 crore by 2029-30. The Time Use Survey 2024 found women aged 6 and above spend over four and a half hours a day on unpaid domestic and care work, against 37 minutes for men. Expect questions on the January 2025 revamp (monthly estimates, calendar year) and on this 2027 change. (Also: Upstox, 23 October 2026, quoting the NSO press note: four strata in rural and five in urban areas, 14 households per First Stage Unit.)
Asked before: CDS II 2025 asked about the findings of the annual Periodic Labour Force Survey report 2023-24.