Dr. P. C. Mohanan retired from the Indian Statistical Service in 2015. He spent many years in the National Sample Survey Organisation and the Central Statistical Organisation in various capacities. After retirement from CSO, he worked as a short term consultant in national and international organisations like Delhi Policy Group, FAO, UNDP and ILO. He was appointed as a Member National Statistical Commission in June 2017 and made Acting Chairman in October 2018 till he left the Commission in January 2019. He was also a member of several government committees including Member of the Expert Committee on Agricultural Statistics (2010), Technical Group on Estimating Housing Shortage (2012), Post Sachar Evaluation Committee (2014), Committee for Slum Index (2014) etc. His published works are in employment-unemployment, housing, demographic issues, statistical systems etc.

Currently he is the Chairman of Kerala State Statistical Commission and writes regularly on data related issues in newspapers and academic journals.