Unemployment steady, but poor job quality persists amid LFPR surge

The latest annual Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) report for July 2023-June 2024, released this week, shows the unemployment rate remained at 3.2 per cent, the same as last year. However, the overall labour force participation rate (LFPR) under “usual status” for persons aged 15 years and above rose to a seven-year high of 60.1 per cent compared to 49.8 per cent in 2017-18. The female LFPR — rural and urban combined — also increased from a low of 23.3 per cent in 2017-18 to 41.7 per cent in the latest survey. The comparable number for males