India’s unemployment rate sees marginal drop

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Updated on: Aug 18, 2025 05:38 pm IST

India’s unemployment rate fell to 5.2% in July from 5.6% in the previous month, according to the Periodic Labour Force Survey released on Monday

India’s unemployment rate fell to 5.2% from 5.6% in the previous month, according to the Periodic Labour Force Survey released on Monday.

Self-employment dominated in rural areas, while regular wage/salaried employment was predominant in urban areas, says ministry of statistics and programme implementation.(Hemant Mishra/Mint Archive)

“During the month of July 2025, the Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) under the Current Weekly Status (CWS) among persons of age 15 years and above was 54.9% as compared to 54.2% during June 2025,” the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation stated in a media release. “LFPR in rural areas and urban areas was 56.9% and 50.7%, respectively, for persons of the same age group.”

The sampling methodology of the Periodic Labour Force Survey was revamped in January 2025 to generate high-frequency labour force indicators with wider coverage. It has the following objectives:

To generate key employment and unemployment indicators—namely the Labour Force Participation Rate, Worker Population Ratio and Unemployment Rate—every month for both rural and urban areas at the all-India level under the Current Weekly Status.
To extend the Quarterly PLFS results to rural areas, thereby producing quarterly estimates of labour market indicators for both rural and urban India.
To provide annual estimates of key employment and unemployment indicators for rural as well as urban areas of the country.

This is the first time MoSPI has released its quarterly update for India’s labour statistics.

The unemployment rate for both male and female workers stood at 5.4% in the April-June quarter. That stood at 4.8% for rural areas and 6.8% for urban areas.

“In terms of employment status, self-employment dominated in rural areas (55.3% of men and 71.6% of women), while regular wage/salaried employment was predominant in urban areas (47.5% of men and 55.1% of women),” MoSPI stated.

By industry of work, the agriculture sector engaged the majority of rural workers (44.6% of men and 70.9% of women), while the tertiary sector was the largest source of employment in urban areas (60.6% of men and 64.9% of women).

On average, 56.4 crore persons (aged 15 years and above) were employed in the country during this quarter, of which 39.7 crore were men and 16.7 crore were women.