SYLLABUS
GS-3: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment.
Context:
Recently, the second quarterly PLFS under the new series was released, which presents estimates of key labour force indicators.
Key Findings
- Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR): Overall LFPR for persons aged 15 and above stabilized at 55.1% during July-September 2025, compared to 55.0% in the previous quarter.
- A slight uptick was observed in both rural and urban areas, with rural LFPR inching up from 57.1% to 57.2%, and urban LFPR also rising slightly from 50.6% to 50.7%.
- Female LFPR: The overall LFPR among females of age 15 years and above increased to 33.7% in July-September 2025 from 33.4% in the previous quarter.
- The increase was largely driven by an increase in female LFPR in rural areas from 37.0% to 37.5% in the same period.
- Unemployment Rate (UR): Overall unemployment rate for persons aged 15 years and above declined to 5.2% in July–September 2025 from 5.4% in the previous quarter.
- The UR saw divergent trends across rural and urban areas. While Rural unemployment declined from 4.8% to 4.4%, Urban unemployment edged up slightly from 6.8% to 6.9%.
- Worker Population Ratio (WPR): The WPR rose marginally to 52.2% from 52.0%, with rural WPR at 54.7% and urban WPR at 47.2% for persons aged 15 years and above.
- The overall female WPR rose to 32.0% in July–September 2025, up from 31.6% in the previous quarter.
- Employment Types:
- Self-employment dominated rural employment, increasing from 60.7% to 62.8%.
- In urban areas, regular wage or salaried employment showed marginal improvement, rising from 49.4% to 49.8%.
- Sectoral Employment:
- Rural workforce continued to concentrate in agriculture, with its share rising from 53.5% to 57.7%, attributed to seasonal agricultural activity.
- Urban workforce was largely employed in the tertiary sector, which engaged 62.0% of urban workers, slightly higher than 61.7% in the previous quarter.
About Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS)
- The PLFS was conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).
- It serves as the key data source on labour market activity and employment-unemployment trends throughout India.
- Methodological Revamp from January 2025:
- From January 2025, the PLFS underwent a comprehensive methodological update with wider coverage across both rural and urban India under the Current Weekly Status (CWS) framework.
- This redesign introduced monthly and quarterly estimation cycles for key employment indicators to better capture labour market dynamics.
- Objectives of the Redesigned PLFS
- To release monthly national-level estimates of Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR) and Unemployment Rate (UR) for rural and urban areas under the CWS framework.
- To expand quarterly PLFS coverage to include rural areas, enabling nationwide quarterly labour market estimates under CWS.
- To provide annual estimates of key employment and unemployment indicators under both Usual Status and Current Weekly Status for rural and urban areas.
- Coverage and Reporting Enhancements
- The April-June 2025 bulletin marked the first time that estimates for both rural and urban populations were included.
- The July-September 2025 bulletin further builds on this by presenting the number of workers in absolute terms alongside key indicators.
- Additionally, this bulletin offers state-level estimates of LFPR, WPR, and UR for selected states, again separately for rural and urban regions.