Youth unemployment rises to 15.3% in June, labour participation dips

Youth unemployment rose for the second month in a row as labour participation fell in June, with a sharper increase in urban joblessness, PLFS data from NSO shows

The unemployment rate among youth -- 15-29 age group -- rose for the second month in a row to 15.3 per cent in June from 15 per cent in May, the monthly periodic labour force survey (PLFS) data released on Tuesday revealed.

 

The rise in youth unemployment rate was more pronounced in urban areas with the June figure coming in at 18.8 per cent, against 17.9 per cent in May. In the rural areas, it was 13.8 per cent in June against 13.7 per cent of May.

 

The PLFS data is released by the National Statistics Office (NSO).

   

The labour force participation rate (LFPR) among youth -- which is a measure of the number of people either working or looking for work -- declined to 41 per cent in June from 42.1 per cent in May.

 

In rural areas, the figure stood at 41.1 per cent, down from 42.7 per cent, while in urban areas, it remained unchanged at 40.8 per cent.

 

The NSO measures unemployment rate in the current weekly status (CWS) terms, in which the activity status is determined on the reference period over the past seven days preceding the date of the survey.

 

Under this, a person is considered as unemployed in a week if they did not work even for one hour on any day during the reference week but sought or were available for work at least for one hour on any day during the reference week.

 

But for people aged ‘15 years and above’, the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.6 per cent in June.

 

While the unemployment rate declined in rural areas to 4.9 per cent during the month from 5.1 per cent in May, it rose to 7.1 per cent in urban areas from 6.9 per cent in May. 

 

The female unemployment rate declined marginally to 5.6 per cent from 5.8 per cent in May. Male unemployment, however, remained steady at 5.6 per cent.

 

“The decrease in the unemployment rate for rural areas for both male and female can be attributed to an increase in the share of own-account workers in June 2025 compared to May 2025, along with a reduction in the number of unemployed persons,” said a statement by the labour ministry.

 

 

The LFPR for people in the ‘15 years and above’ category stood at 54.2 per cent during June as compared to 54.8 per cent during May. 

 

“The marginal decline in LFPR and WPR in June 2025 was largely influenced by seasonal agricultural patterns, intense summer heat limiting outdoor physical work, and a shift of some unpaid helpers, particularly from higher-income rural households, towards domestic chores,” the statement said.

 

The sampling methodology of PLFS has been revamped by the NSO from January 2025 in a bid to estimate the key employment and unemployment indicators on a monthly basis for rural and urban areas in the CWS method at all India level.

 

The new methodology also aims to extend the coverage of the quarterly results of PLFS to rural areas and estimate key employment and unemployment indicators in both usual status (ps+ss) and CWS in both rural and urban areas annually.

 

Among a key change in the methodology, a rotational panel sampling design is used in which each selected household is visited four times in four consecutive months, in the beginning with the first visit schedule in the first month and other three with the revisit schedule in the following three months for both rural and urban areas.