The Ministry of Labour and Employment has announced the beginning of the Area Frame Establishment Survey (AFES), a field survey aimed to understand employment in the Indian informal sector and establishments with less than 10 workers.
Over 2.5 crore unorganised workers have already registered on the e-Shram portal, which was launched on August 26, 2021. This portal is India’s database for unorganised workers.
The survey will focus on employment in the unorganised segment of the nine non-farm sectors. The move follows up on the Ministry’s recent release of the results of the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES)—which specifically focuses on the organised sector — for the April-June quarter.
The Labour Bureau, which is the data and statistics wing of the Labour Ministry, will carry out the AFES and the next QES simultaneously. The plan is to collate the results into an annual report. A combination of both these reports will result in the All-India Quarterly Establishment-based Employment Survey (AQEES) which is expected to be released in early financial year 2023.
This report, AQEES, will give an estimate of employment, vacancies, training and so on, in both the organised and unorganised sectors.
According to the Labour Ministry, data on all aspects of labour is crucial and scientifically-collected data will remain the bedrock for evidence policy making. The survey was launched at the Shram Bureau Bhawan in Chandigarh.
