The unemployment rate saw a marginal rise in urban areas in October, indicating fewer job opportunities for individuals aged 15 and above even during the festive month. According to government data released on Monday, the urban unemployment rate increased by 0.2 percentage points to 7% in October, up from 6.8% in September.
The overall unemployment rate remained steady at 5.2% in October, unchanged from September, when it had risen by 0.1 percentage point from August’s 5.1%, according to the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) issued by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI). In rural areas, unemployment declined to 4.4% in October from 4.6% in September, after standing at 4.3% in August.
“A minor decrease in rural male unemployment rate was offset by a slight rise in urban male unemployment rate from 6.0% to 6.1% during the same period, which contributed to overall stability,” MoSPI said in a statement.
Among females, the unemployment rate edged down to 5.4% in October from 5.5% in September. “The drop in unemployment rate among rural female, from 4.3% in September to 4.0% in October, mainly contributed towards decline in overall female unemployment rate,” the ministry said.
Urban areas also saw a slight uptick in unemployment during the second quarter of FY26, even as the overall unemployment rate registered a marginal decline, according to the quarterly PLFS survey released on November 10. The overall rate eased to 5.2% in the July–September quarter from 5.4% in April–June. In urban areas, the rate rose from 6.1% to 6.2% for males and from 8.9% to 9.0% for females.
In October, the overall Worker Population Ratio (WPR) increased to 52.5%, continuing a steady rise since June, driven by growth in the female workforce. The ministry said the increase was largely due to rising female participation in rural areas.
“Overall WPR among female of age 15 years and above increased steadily for the fourth month in a row, rising from 30.2% in June to 32.4% in October,” the release stated. In rural areas, the female WPR climbed consistently over four months, reaching 36.9% in October from 33.6% in June.
The data also showed a continued rise in the overall Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) for persons aged 15 and above, increasing for four consecutive months from 54.2% in June to 55.4% in October. Overall female LFPR also trended upward, rising from 32.0% in June to 34.2% in October.
MoSPI said the monthly survey is based on data collected from 374,164 individuals. Monthly bulletins for April to September have already been released, and the October bulletin is the seventh in the series presenting estimates of key labour market indicators following the Current Weekly Status1 (CWS) approach. Under the CWS approach, an individual’s activity status is determined based on the seven days preceding the survey date. According to this method, a person is considered unemployed if they did not work even for an hour on any day during the reference week but sought or were available for work for at least an hour on any of those days.
