NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister’s Office ( PMO ) has prodded the statistics ministry to begin a periodic survey of the country’s labour force which has been pending for a while now.The survey will provide the government better information on he country’s labour force, helping it plan policies better. One of the promises of the Narendra Modi government is more job creation.The statistics ministry planned to conduct the quarterly Periodic Labour Force Survey ( PLFS ) and the country’s first survey using tablet computers last year, but the process got delayed due to lack of resources.“There is a general communication from the PMO to begin the survey soon and fast track the process. We hope to begin the survey next month,” said an official privy to the development.The technology-driven survey will be conducted by researchers using tablets and guided by what’s known as computerassisted personal interviewing (CAPI) technique.Apart from saving time, tablets will help in data validation as they would come loaded with a schedule of questions and software to estimate critical indicators such as unemployment rate and workforce participation.Moreover, assessing officers will be able to edit data collected while conducting interviews and any anomalies — for instance, expenditure exceeding income will be highlighted immediately.The National Statistics Commission first called for a periodic labour force survey in 2009 and a pilot survey was undertaken in FY2013.“We are organising a training programme for manpower,” the official said.At present, employment data is only available through NSSO surveys done every five years. Not only is it limited to a few sectors, but also based on the Annual Survey of Industries which only captures the employees of the registered factories.It is supported by the quick quarterly employment surveys the Labour Bureau has been doing since the global economic crisis of 2008.However, these cover only select sectors of the economy at the enterprise level to assess the impact of economic slowdown on employment in India.These numbers are insufficient to assess the state of the economy.Developed countries such as the US come out with monthly employment data.