The unemployment rate for persons aged 15 years and above improved marginally to 5.1% in the July-September period from 5.2% a year ago, according to the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) released on Tuesday.
According to the PLFS, the unemployment rate (UR), or joblessness rate, was 5.4% in the April-June quarter this year.
The PLFS, conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO), is the primary source of data on activity participation and employment-unemployment conditions.
The survey methodology was modified in January 2025 to provide monthly and quarterly estimates of labour force indicators for rural and urban India under the current weekly status (CWS) framework. The current bulletin for July-September 2026 is the sixth in the series.
At the all-India level, the quarterly estimates are based on information collected from 5,55,593 persons surveyed.
According to the latest PLFS bulletin, the overall UR for persons aged 15 years and above improved to 5.1% in the current quarter from 5.4% in the previous quarter.
During the same period, rural UR fell to 4.3% from 4.8%, while urban UR remained broadly stable at 6.8%, against 6.7% in the previous quarter.
Compared to 4.4% in the corresponding quarter of 2025, the rural UR remained largely unchanged at 4.3% during July-September 2026.
Rural male UR declined by 0.3 percentage points to 4.4% in July-September 2026 from 4.7% in the year-ago period.
Urban UR registered marginal improvements for both males (6.2% to 6.1%) and females (9% to 8.8%) over the same period.
The share of workers in rural areas engaged in self-employment rose to 62.7% in the current quarter from 61.4% in the previous quarter. In urban areas, the share of regular wage/salaried workers advanced to 49.6% from 49.3% in the previous quarter.
In rural and urban areas, the share of workers engaged in casual labour declined quarter-on-quarter during July-September 2026. In rural areas, it decreased from 22.5% to 21.7%, while in urban areas, it declined from 11.1% to 10.7%.
A year-on-year comparison pointed to a reduction in the proportion of workers engaged in casual labour employment. In rural areas, the share declined by 0.5 percentage points from 22.2% in July-September 2025 to 21.7% in July-September 2026. Similarly, in urban areas, it decreased marginally by 0.2 percentage points from 10.9% to 10.7%.
In rural areas, the share of workers in self-employment remained stable, while regular wage/salaried employment increased by 0.6 percentage points over the year. In urban areas, self-employment increased by 0.4 percentage points, while regular wage/salaried employment declined marginally year-on-year.
The share of the agriculture sector increased in rural areas, while the tertiary sector remained stable in urban areas, the release said.
The sectoral distribution of employment continued to reflect distinct rural-urban employment patterns, with the rural workforce predominantly engaged in agriculture and the urban workforce concentrated in the tertiary sector.
In rural areas, the share of workers engaged in agriculture increased from 52.9% in April-June 2026 to 56.7% in July-September 2026.
The share of workers engaged in the secondary sector, including mining and quarrying, stood at 21.9%, against 24.4% in the previous quarter. In the tertiary sector, it was estimated at 21.4% in the current quarter, against 22.7% in the last quarter.
Compared to July-September 2025, the share of rural workers engaged in the secondary sector, including mining and quarrying, increased from 21% to 21.9%, while the share in the tertiary sector remained broadly stable, increasing marginally from 21.3% to 21.4% in July-September 2026.
In urban areas, the share of workers engaged in the secondary and tertiary sectors remained broadly stable, the release said.
The overall Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) for persons aged 15 years and above increased to 55.5% during July-September 2026 from 54.6% in the previous quarter.
The improvement was driven by an increase in LFPR in both rural and urban areas. In rural areas, LFPR for persons aged 15 years and above rose to 58.1% in the current quarter from 56.9% in the previous quarter. Similarly, urban LFPR increased marginally to 50.4% from 50.2%.
The overall female LFPR increased to 34.7% during the current quarter from 33.2% in the previous quarter.
Among males, the urban LFPR registered a marginal increase, reaching 77.3% during the quarter from 77% in April-June 2026.
On a year-on-year basis, the overall LFPR recorded an increase of 0.4 percentage points, rising from 55.1% in July-September 2025 to 55.5% in July-September 2026. Rural LFPR also improved by 0.9 percentage points, increasing from 57.2% to 58.1% during the same period, while the urban LFPR declined marginally by 0.3 percentage points.
The overall Worker Population Ratio (WPR) for persons aged 15 years and above increased to 52.7% during the July-September 2026 quarter from 51.7% in the previous quarter.
WPR in rural areas increased to 55.6% from 54.2% in the last quarter. In urban areas, WPR remained largely stable at 46.9% during July-September 2026, up from 46.8% in the preceding quarter.
