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India Jobless Rate Rises to 5% in January–March 2026 PLFS

Seasonal patterns, paired with a short series, make quarter-to-quarter swings hard to read.

Overview

  • The National Statistics Office’s labour survey, released Monday, put unemployment at 5.0% with urban joblessness easing to 6.6% as the rural rate rose to 4.3%.
  • Women and young workers faced more pressure, with female unemployment at 5.3% and the 15–29 rate at 15.0%.
  • The share of people working or seeking work slipped, with the labour force participation rate at 55.5% and the worker population ratio at 52.8%.
  • Rural employment moved away from agriculture as its share fell to 55.8%, while secondary roles reached 22.6% and services 21.7%.
  • Regular salaried work in villages edged up to 15.5% and self-employment fell to 62.5%, based on responses from 561,822 people in the fourth post‑revamp quarterly survey.