India Unemployment Rate Climbs First Time In 3 Months

(RTTNews) - India's jobless rate rose in September after declining in the previous two months, mainly due to a notable increase in unemployment among women, data from the statistics ministry revealed on Wednesday.

The unemployment rate among persons of age 15 years and above climbed to 5.2 percent from 5.1 percent in August, based on a current weekly status approach, according to the Periodic Labor Force Survey of the ministry. The rate peaked at 5.6 percent in May and June.

The jobless rate for the urban areas rose to 6.8 percent from 6.7 percent, while that for the rural population climbed to 4.6 percent from 4.3 percent. Urban women witnessed a significant increase for unemployment during September. The jobless rate for this group jumped to 9.3 percent from 8.9 percent in the previous month. The unemployment rate for the rural women rose to 5.5 percent from 5.2 percent. The jobless rate for the urban male population rose to 6.0 percent from 5.9 percent. The rate for the rural men grew to 4.7 percent from 4.5 percent.

The labor force participation rate climbed to a five-month high of 55.3 percent in September. The female participation in the labor force continued to grow in September to 34.1 percent, which was the highest since May. A third successive month of improvement in the LFPR among rural women was the main contributor to the overall increase in female LFPR.

The Worker Population Ratio, which shows the share of labor force who were employed during the survey period, was 52.4 percent in September, which was the highest since May. The WPR for women increased for the third month in a row, the ministry said.

The monthly estimates are based on information collected from a sample of 375,703 persons, of whom 215,051 were in the rural regions and 160,652 in the urban areas.

The sample design of the PLFS was revamped from January 2025 considering the need for generation of high frequency labor force indicators with enhanced coverage, the ministry said. This was the sixth bulletin in the series.