India’s unemployment rate for people aged 15 years and above fell to 5.1% in July 2026, compared with 5.5% in June, according to the latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) on Monday. This was the lowest joblessness rate in four months.
The decline was driven largely by an improvement in rural employment conditions. The unemployment rate in rural areas dropped to 4.5% in July from 5% a month earlier. In urban areas, however, unemployment was broadly unchanged at 6.7%, against 6.6% in June.
On a year-on-year basis, however, the overall unemployment rate and the rural rate remained broadly unchanged in July. Urban unemployment, however, improved, falling from 7.2% in July 2025 to 6.7 per cent this July.
The latest monthly figures come against a backdrop of higher unemployment in the April-June quarter. The unemployment rate during the quarter rose to 5.4%, the highest level in a year, compared with 5% in the preceding quarter. Rural unemployment increased to 4.8% from 4.3%, while the urban rate edged up to 6.7% from 6.6%.
The survey showed a decline in unemployment among rural workers across genders in July, along with an improvement in the rate for urban men.
Among men aged 15 years and above, the national unemployment rate fell to 5% in July from 5.3% in June. It was also 0.3 percentage point lower than the 5.3% recorded in July last year.
Rural male unemployment declined to 4.6% from 4.9% in June, while remaining at the same level as a year earlier. Urban male unemployment was largely unchanged from the previous month but recorded a sharper annual improvement, falling to 5.9% from 6.6% in July 2025.
For women in the 15-years-and-above age group, the overall and rural unemployment rates declined from June levels. Both, however, remained higher than their corresponding figures a year earlier.
Urban female unemployment moved in the opposite direction, rising to 8.8% in July from 8.4% in June. The rate was broadly similar to the 8.7% recorded in July 2025.
The April-June data also showed that an average of 566 million people aged 15 years and above were employed during the quarter. Of these, 402 million were men and 164 million were women.
The July PLFS bulletin also pointed to a rise in labour force participation. The Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) for people aged 15 years and above increased to 55.4% in July from 54.4% in June.
The LFPR had declined between March and May before remaining unchanged in June. Its July increase therefore marks a reversal of that recent trend.
The monthly estimates are based on responses from 3,71,021 people surveyed across the country. The July 2026 bulletin is the sixteenth edition of the monthly PLFS series.