Unemployment

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The unemployment rate (UR) for individuals aged 15 and older rose slightly to 5.1 per cent in March from 4.9 per cent in February this year, mainly due to high joblessness in urban areas, according to government data released on Wednesday. The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), is the primary source of data on activity participation, employment and unemployment conditions of the population. The PLFS survey methodology has been modified from January 2025 to provide monthly and quarterly estimates of labour force indicators for the country. The Monthly Bulletins for April 2025 to February 2026 have already been released. The present Monthly Bulletin for March 2026 is the twelfth in the series. A statement on the PLFS stated that the UR among persons aged 15 years and above rose slightly to 5.1 per cent in March 2026 from 4.9 per cent in February 2026, mainly driv

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Overall unemployment among persons aged 15 years and above fell marginally to 4.9 per cent in February from 5 per cent in January this year, according to the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) released on Monday. After an increase in January 2026, the urban unemployment rate (UR) among persons aged 15 years and above declined to 6.6 per cent in February 2026, falling below the December 2025 level (6.7%), the survey stated. Rural UR remained unchanged at 4.2 per cent in February 2026. In February 2026, the overall unemployment rate (UR) among females aged 15 years and above declined to 5.1 per cent, compared to 5.6 per cent in January, 2026. Decline was observed in both rural and urban areas. The urban female UR decreased from 9.8 per cent in January 2026 to 8.7 per cent in February 2026, while the rural female UR declined from 4.3 per cent to 4.0 per cent during the same period. The overall male UR remained stable at 4.8 per cent. The overall Labour Force Participation Rate (LFP

The count of active jobs in February was the lowest since October 2024, when it was 14.12 lakh, according to the NCS performance dashboard

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The number of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits inched up last week but US layoffs remain historically low despite signs of a softening labour market. US filings for jobless aid for the week ending Jan 17 rose by 1,000 to 200,000, up from 199,000 the previous week, the Labour Department reported Thursday. That's fewer than the 207,000 new applications that analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet were expecting. Applications for unemployment benefits are viewed as a proxy for layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market. The four-week average of jobless claims, which softens some of the week-to-week volatility, fell by 3,750 to 201,500. The total number of Americans filing for jobless benefits for the previous week ending Jan 10 declined by 26,000 to 1.85 million, the government said.

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Unemployment rate for persons aged 15 years and above rose marginally to 4.8 per cent in December 2025 compared to 4.7 per cent in the preceding month. The unemployment rate (UR) or joblessness, among persons of age 15 years and above, remained largely stable in December 2025, according to the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on Thursday. The overall UR is estimated at 4.8 per cent in December 2025 against 4.7 per cent observed in November 2025, it added. The rural UR remained stagnant at 3.9 per cent, while the urban UR increased to 6.7 per cent from 6.5 per cent in the previous month, the data showed. Among rural males aged 15 years and above, the UR remained low and stable at 4.1 per cent in December, 2025. Further, the urban female UR moderated to 9.1 per cent in December 2025 from 9.3 per cent in November 2025. According to a statement, the UR in the remaining gender sector increased slightly, tho

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For urban areas, the jobless rate fell to 6.5 per cent from 7 per cent during the same period

The rate of unemployment for those aged 15 and above remained steady at 5.2 per cent in October, according to a government survey released on Monday. The unemployment rate (UR) was 5.2 per cent in September, 5.1 per cent in August, 5.2 per cent in July and 5.6 per cent in May and June, as per the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI). The UR was 5.1 per cent in April as per the first PLFS bulletin released in May 2025. "The UR among persons of age 15 years and above remained unchanged at 5.2 per cent between September, 2025 and October, 2025," an official statement said. According to the statement, a marginal decline in the rural unemployment rate, from 4.6 per cent in September 2025 to 4.4 per cent in October 2025, coupled with a moderate rise in urban UR from 6.8 per cent to 7.0 per cent, resulted in overall stability in the pace of joblessness among persons aged 15 years and above. It stated that UR among

The Congress on Thursday said "rising unemployment" has become a matter of "grave concern" but Prime Minister Narendra Modi, instead of solving this problem, is always in "election mode", busy "inventing new speeches" to divert the attention of the public. Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the "past 11 years of misrule" have hit all sections of society. "Students, youth, farmers, labourers, workers, shopkeepers, employees, businessmen - not a single section is happy with this government. Inflation is skyrocketing, the value of the rupee is continuously falling, and the gap between rich and poor is ever-widening, making life difficult for poor and middle-class families," Ramesh said in his post in Hindi on X. "In this context, rising unemployment has become a matter of grave concern," the Congress leader said. Citing the latest CMIE report, Ramesh said the country's unemployment rate rose to 7.5% in October 2025, the highest level in the last six

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