First Monthly Labour Survey Reveals 5.1% Unemployment in April

India's unemployment rate for individuals aged 15 and above stood at 5.1% in April, with male unemployment at 5.2% and female unemployment at 5.0%, according to the first monthly bulletin of the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) released on Thursday by the National Statistics Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

In April, India's unemployment rate in urban areas stood at 6.5%, while rural areas recorded a lower rate of 4.5% for individuals aged 15 and above, according to official data. Among urban dwellers, females faced a significantly higher unemployment rate of 8.7% compared to 5.8% for males. In contrast, rural areas saw a reversal of this trend, with the unemployment rate for females at 3.9%, lower than 4.9% for males. Experts noted that this rural-urban disparity highlights the growing pressure on job creation in urban centres.

The monthly estimates are derived using the Current Weekly Status (CWS) approach, which assesses the activity status of individuals based on the seven days preceding the survey date.

Youth Jobless Rate, Female LFPR Under Spotlight

India’s youth unemployment rate for individuals aged 15–29 years stood at 13.8% in April, with urban areas witnessing a significantly higher rate of 17.2% compared to 12.3% in rural areas, according to official data.

The data also revealed a gender gap in youth unemployment. Overall, female youth faced a higher unemployment rate at 14.4% compared to 13.6% for males. This disparity was more pronounced in urban areas, where female youth unemployment soared to 23.7%, significantly higher than the 15.0% recorded for males. Conversely, in rural areas, the trend reversed; female youth unemployment was lower at 10.7%, while male youth unemployment stood at 13.0%.

Explaining this pattern, Paras Jasrai, Economist and Associate Director at India Ratings and Research, said, “This could be due to (a) higher female preferences for education in urban areas than rural areas and (b) lower employment opportunities in urban areas than rural areas for females.”

In April, India’s Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) for individuals aged 15 and above was recorded at 55.6%, with rural areas reporting a higher rate of 58.0% compared to 50.7% in urban areas. A significant gender gap was evident, as the LFPR for females stood at just 34.2%, in contrast to 77.7% for males.

For individuals aged 15 and above, the female Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) was lower in urban areas at 25.7% compared to 38.2% in rural areas. In contrast, the male LFPR was 75.3% in urban areas and 79.0% in rural areas.

Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) represents the portion of the population that supplies or is willing to supply labor for economic activities involved in producing goods and services. This includes both employed and unemployed individuals. Using the Current Weekly Status (CWS) approach, the labour force is defined as the average number of people who were either employed or unemployed during the week preceding the survey date.

Understanding the Worker Population Ratio

The Worker Population Ratio (WPR), which reflects the employment rate, stood at 52.8% for individuals aged 15 years and above in April. In urban areas, the WPR was recorded at 47.4%, while rural areas reported a higher rate of 55.4%.

According to the Current Weekly Status (CWS) approach, the WPR represents the proportion of people who worked for at least one hour on any day during the week preceding the survey.

Breaking it down by gender, the WPR for females was 23.5% in urban areas and 36.8% in rural areas. For males, the WPR was significantly higher, at 71% in urban areas and 75.1% in rural regions.

Updated Sample Size and Survey Design

Under the revamped Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), a total of 3.80 lakh individuals and 89,434 households were surveyed for the April monthly bulletin. Since January 2025, the PLFS sample design has been updated to include a monthly rotational panel scheme for both rural and urban areas. In this scheme, each selected household is visited four times over four consecutive months, one initial visit followed by three revisit surveys in the subsequent months.

Additionally, the structure of the ‘schedule of inquiry’ has been revised to include new questions covering more detailed information on education, the type of certifying bodies for vocational and technical training, land ownership and leased land, as well as households’ regular monthly income from rent, pension, interest, and remittances.

The revamped PLFS will also adopt a calendar-year reporting period starting from January 2025, replacing the earlier July-June cycle. The April bulletin released on Thursday marked the first monthly bulletin under the new system, while the first quarterly bulletin covering both rural and urban areas for April to June is scheduled for release in August.

Previously, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) released rural PLFS data annually and urban PLFS data quarterly, along with an annual report combining both rural and urban data. In contrast, other employment data, such as surveys conducted by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), are published on a weekly and monthly basis.

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