Right after independence the policy makers of the country felt an urgent need for information on the nation’s status with regard keys socio-economic and demographic variables. This was essential in order to have an over view of the gap that existed between the desired and the state of development of the nation then. With this in mind, the National Sample Survey Organisation was set up in 1951 and since then has been conducting surveys with a view to measure amongst other variables, the level of employment and unemployment in the India. One of the first such surveys was conducted in the year 1953 (the 6th round. Since then, the NSSO conducted employment/unemployment surveys till 1962 for rural and till 1967 for urban areas on an annual basis. This early period of 14 years of annual surveys was marked by experimentation with regard to the development of concepts in defining and measuring employment levels and the periods of reference used to question survey participants.