NITI's employment task force may revamp country's data collection system

We need to have more frequent household surveys, says Panagariya

The task force on employment data, headed by NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya, is likely to recommend a complete revamp of the country's data collection system.

The Prime Minister's Office last month had constituted the task force which included Chief Statistician TCA Anant and Labour Secretary M Sathiyavathy to suggest solutions for having timely and reliable employment data for policy making.

"We are going to recommend actually a full revamp (of data collection). We need to have more frequent household surveys, which will be at least annual, possibly some quarterly element to it," Panagariya said in an interview to CNBC TV18.

He further said that there is a need to have establishment or enterprise surveys conducted annually.

"And I think the possibilities of doing this in the next 2-3 years is all in place," he said.

Replying to another question, Panagariya said, "If you take the liberal definition of unemployment then it is typically 2-3 per cent. If you take the most conservative definition of unemployment, then it is 5-8 per cent.