PLFS
PLFS Quarterly / Calendar Year Releases
PLFS quarterly/calendar releases are used to track short-term labour-market turning points.
NSO / MoSPI · NSO / MoSPI
India, urban, rural
2025 calendar and quarterly extracts
Quarterly / calendar annualized
What this is best for
Short-term labor turning points
Main limitations
Not a substitute for July–June annual microdata; design refresh from 2025
Quick answers
Short research-facing answers derived from this catalog record.
- What is PLFS Quarterly used for?
- Short-term labor turning points
- How do you access PLFS Quarterly data?
- PLFS Quarterly is labeled “Registration required” on this guide. Open the access portal or documentation links on the record for the current host process—do not assume open download if registration or a DUA is required.
- What geography and time does PLFS Quarterly cover?
- Geography: India, urban, rural. Time coverage: 2025 calendar and quarterly extracts.
- What are the main limitations of PLFS Quarterly?
- Not a substitute for July–June annual microdata; design refresh from 2025
Background & previous rounds
Background (previous rounds). PLFS always had a high-frequency arm separate from the July–June annual wave. Predecessors in that arm on NADA include calendar-year unit extracts for 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 (e.g. catalog/209, /211, /208, /254) plus quarterly unit files (e.g. Apr–Dec 2025, catalog/292) and earlier urban CWS quarterly bulletins from late 2018. Sampling was revamped from January 2025 for higher-frequency indicators. This catalog entry is for those calendar/quarterly products—not legacy NSS EUS rounds (61st/66th/68th) and not the annual July–June PLFS microdata stack.
Full design timeline: PLFS series page
Guides for using this data
Official portals, user guides, codebooks, and tutorials for access and analysis.
- PortalMoSPI National Microdata Archive (NADA)microdata.gov.in/nada43/index.php/home
- User guideGuide to download MoSPI microdata (PDF)mospi.gov.in/sites/default/files/data_disemination/Guide_to_download_microdata.pdf
- PortalMoSPI home / survey releaseswww.mospi.gov.in/
- OfficialPLFS collection catalogmicrodata.gov.in/NADA/index.php/catalog/PLFS
- CodebookPLFS July 2023–June 2024 study pagemicrodata.gov.in/NADA/index.php/catalog/213
- VideoVideo: Downloading PLFS microdata & variableswww.youtube.com/watch?v=xpfS9Dq2Lpw
- CodebookPLFS calendar year 2025 studymicrodata.gov.in/NADA/index.php/catalog/284
Variables7
Live-fetched microdata.gov.in (2026-07-09): India - Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), July 2023-June 2024. Representative fields for the page table — verify the full dictionary on the official site.
Sourced from live host documentation
Pairs well with
Many Indian data problems need survey + administrative combinations.