The Indian government is proposing changes to the way it collects employment data through the periodic labour force survey, aiming to better track gig workers and record engagement in unpaid household work, including caregiving and volunteering. The changes, expected to be introduced in January 2027, could affect the employment and unemployment numbers published monthly by the ministry of statistics.
According to the government’s economic survey published earlier this year, gig workers could constitute 2 per cent of the country’s workforce. These workers, whose jobs range from delivering groceries to providing beauty services at home, occupy an ambiguous position in the labour market. Many work through apps and online platforms on a task-by-task basis and do not fit neatly into conventional employment categories.
The ministry has been collecting information on digital platform workers on an experimental basis since January 2026, but says the existing sampling method has failed to capture enough of them. It now proposes a separate category to improve their representation. The second change aimed at capturing unpaid work needs more careful scrutiny, as the concept note does not explain how the ministry will distinguish economic production from unpaid domestic activity.
These changes will significantly impact labour statistics, as alterations in sampling and questionnaires affect comparability over time and make it harder to tell real shifts in the labour market from those arising from methodology. The government has routinely faced questions about the quality of its economic data in recent years.
Source: Financial Times Companies · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing