Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) – Monthly Bulletin [May 2025]

Context:

Recently, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has come up with the monthly bulletin of the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) of 2025.

More on the News

• This was the second monthly release of India’s labour force data covering both urban and rural areas.
• Previously, the government published employment data on a quarterly basis for urban regions and annually for both urban and rural areas.
• PLFS has been revamped since January 2025, and the latest addition to the jobs data in the form of a monthly bulletin has been done to ensure availability of high-frequency labour market data with robust coverage to aid timely policy intervention.
• It contains data for both urban and rural areas.
• The decline in LFPR and worker population ratio (WPR), and the rise in unemployment were driven largely by seasonal agricultural patterns, higher summer temperature in May in some parts of the country.
• As a result physical outdoor work gets limited and movement of some unpaid helpers to domestic chores, especially in the higher income rural households, the survey results showed.

Key Findings

• India’s unemployment rate rose to 5.6% in May 2025 from 5.1% in April 2025 for those aged 15 and above.
• Unemployment rose more for females, from 5% in April to 5.8% in May, while for males, it increased to 5.6% from 5.2%.
• In May, rural unemployment rose to 5.1% from 4.5%, while urban areas saw a 40 bps rise to a higher 6.9%.
• Unemployment was up in both rural and urban regions, with a sharp increase among the youth.
  • In rural India, the jobless rate for those aged 15–29 climbed to 13.7% in May, up from 12.3% in April.
  • In urban areas, youth unemployment rose to 17.9% in May from 17.2% a month earlier.
• The Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) i.e an estimate of the number of people actively engaged in the workforce, in the Current Weekly Status (CWS) stood at 54.8% in May 2025, down from 55.6% in April.

• Rural LFPR was higher at 56.9%, while urban LFPR was 50.4%.
• LFPR in CWS for male of age 15 years and above in rural and urban areas were respectively 78.3% and 75.1% during May, 2025 which marked a marginal decline from the corresponding LFPR estimates of 79.0% and 75.3% respectively for rural and urban areas during April, 2025.
• LFPR among female of age 15 years and above for rural areas was 36.9% during May, 2025.
• In rural areas, employment shifted away from the primary sector (agriculture) – from 45.9% in April to 43.5% in May 2025 – to the secondary and services sectors.
• It said the decline in female LFPR, especially in rural areas (more than one percentage point) was due to fewer women working as casual labourers and unpaid helpers.
  • Reduction in agricultural activities with the end of the Rabi harvest season for both male and female in the rural areas may have brought about the downward shift in the number of workers.