Unemployment rate in urban areas during the third quarter (October-December) of FY25 remained unchanged at 6.4 per cent compared to the preceding quarter, according to the latest quarterly Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data released by the Ministry of Statistics on Tuesday.
While the unemployment rate for men worsened marginally to 5.8 per cent in Q3 from 5.7 per cent in Q2, for women, it improved to 8.1 per cent from 8.4 per cent.
The survey measures the unemployment rate using the current weekly status (CWS).
Here, activity status is determined based on the reference period of the past seven days preceding the date of the survey.
The survey further showed that the jobless rate for the youth (15-29 age group) increased to 16.1 per cent in Q3FY25 from 15.8 per cent in the preceding quarter.
It was led by a rise in the jobless rate for both young men and women.
This figure is important because people belonging to this age group are usually first-timers in the labour markets and this metric reflects their robustness.
The labour force participation rate (LFPR), which represents the share of people either working or seeking employment in the urban population, also remained unchanged at 50.4 per cent in Q3.
Men showed greater enthusiasm for work, shown in their LFPR increasing to 75.4 per cent in Q3 from 75 per cent in the preceding quarter.
However, women workers withdrew from the workforce with their LFPR falling to 25.2 per cent in Q3 from 25.5 per cent in Q2.
In terms of broad status of employment, the survey showed the share of people engaged in self-employment (39.9 per cent), regular / salaried work (49.4 per cent) and casual work (10.7 per cent) also remained unchanged during the quarter.
While the share of female workers engaged in regular work witnessed an increase to 54.8 per cent in Q3 from 53.8 per cent in Q2, the share of men engaged in regular work declined to 47.7 per cent from 47.9 per cent.
Labour economists distinguish between these categories of work and generally consider wage/salaried employment as a better form of employment among the three.
The share of workers in the tertiary sector, which is the biggest employer in urban areas, rose to 62.7 per cent in Q3 from 62.3 per cent in the preceding quarter.
Meanwhile, the share of workers in the secondary (manufacturing) sector declined to 31.8 per cent from 32.3 per cent during this period.
Given the importance of having labour force data available at frequent intervals, the NSO launched India’s first computer-based survey to measure labour force participation dynamics at three-month intervals for urban areas in April 2017.
The current dataset is the 25th in the series.
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