India’s unemployment rate for people aged 15 years and above remained unchanged at 5.5% in June despite a jump in joblessness among the youth, data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on Wednesday showed.
Youth unemployment—for those aged between 15 and 29 years—jumped to a 16.2% in June, the highest in the current Periodic Labour Force Survey series, which has data from April 2025. Youth unemployment was 15.9% in May and 15.3% in June 2025.
Joblessness among the youth primarily rose in urban areas—increasing to 18.2% in June from 17.5% in May. It remained steady at 15.1% in rural areas.
Diverging Urban-Rural Trends
Rural and urban unemployment trends diverged in June. The overall unemployment rate picked up in urban India to 6.6% in June from 6.4% in the previous month. In rural India, joblessness slowed a tad to 5.0% in June from a one-year high of 5.1% in May.
Female unemployment for the 15 years and above category also jumped to a series high of 5.9% last month, up from 5.6% in May. For males, the unemployment rate eased slightly to 5.3% in June from 5.4% in May.
Core Participation Metrics
The labour force participation rate–the percentage of persons working or seeking or available for work—remained unchanged at 54.4% in June. The labour force participation rate was higher in rural areas at 56.6% than in urban areas at 50.1%. The female labour force participation rate fell to an 1-year low of 32.7% in June.
The worker population ratio–the percentage of employed persons in the population–for those aged 15 years and above also stayed steady at 51.4% last month.