India's Unemployment Rate Holds at 5.0% in September 2026, PLFS Bulletin Shows

15 October 2026National

India's unemployment rate for persons aged 15 and above stayed at 5.0% in September 2026, unchanged from August and down from 5.2% a year earlier, according to the National Statistics Office's monthly Periodic Labour Force Survey bulletin. Rural unemployment edged up to 4.2% and urban to 6.9%. The male rate held at 4.9% while the female rate rose to 5.2%; rural female unemployment fell to 3.9%, its lowest in 2026, even as urban female unemployment climbed to 9.2%. The labour force participation rate was 55.5% and the worker population ratio 52.7%, both up year-on-year. 3,70,513 persons were surveyed.

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The Periodic Labour Force Survey was launched in April 2017 by the NSSO, replacing the quinquennial Employment-Unemployment Surveys | Unemployment rate is the unemployed share of the labour force; LFPR the share working or seeking work; WPR the employed share of population | MoSPI uses two approaches - Usual Status over 365 days and Current Weekly Status over seven days

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