IndiaTrackerJobs
Is employment growing? MoSPI's monthly Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), current weekly status, people aged 15 and over unless stated. The monthly bulletin started in 2025, so the series are short.
Unemployment rate
% of the labour force, current weekly status
Youth and women
Unemployment rate, %, current weekly status
Latest months
| Per cent | Apr 2026 | May 2026 | Jun 2026 | Jul 2026 | Aug 2026 | Sep 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unemployment rate | 5.2 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 5.1 | 5.0 | 5.0 |
| Unemployment, rural | 4.6 | 5.1 | 5.0 | 4.5 | 4.1 | 4.2 |
| Unemployment, urban | 6.6 | 6.4 | 6.6 | 6.7 | 6.8 | 6.9 |
| Unemployment, women | 5.4 | 5.6 | 5.9 | 5.4 | 5.1 | 5.2 |
| Youth unemployment | 15.3 | 15.9 | 16.2 | 15.6 | 15.1 | 15.2 |
| LFPR | 55.0 | 54.4 | 54.4 | 55.4 | 55.6 | 55.5 |
| Female LFPR | 33.9 | 32.8 | 32.7 | 34.4 | 34.8 | 34.6 |
| WPR | 52.2 | 51.4 | 51.4 | 52.5 | 52.8 | 52.7 |
Longer run
Urban unemployment, quarterly
% of the labour force, urban, 15+, current weekly status (quarterly bulletin)
Labour force participation, annual
%, 15+, rural + urban, usual status; agricultural years (July–June)
| Per cent, usual status (PS+SS), 15+ | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unemployment rate | 6.0 | 5.8 | 4.8 | 4.2 | 4.1 | 3.2 | 3.2 |
| Participation rate | 49.8 | 50.2 | 53.5 | 54.9 | 55.2 | 57.9 | 60.1 |
| Female participation rate | 23.3 | 24.5 | 30.0 | 32.5 | 32.8 | 37.0 | 41.7 |
Annual figures use the usual-status concept (activity over the past year) and are not comparable with the monthly current-weekly-status figures above. Columns are agricultural years starting in July.
Formal payroll (EPFO)
EPFO net payroll additions
Lakh members a month: new subscribers, minus exits, plus those who rejoined
This counts people joining the Employees' Provident Fund, which covers formal jobs. A rise can mean new jobs or existing jobs being brought into the scheme, so it is not a count of total employment. Figures are provisional and revised for months afterwards; each month shows the newest report that prints it. EPFO has posted no payroll report since September 2025 (covering up to July 2025), so this series is not current. Source: EPFO, Net Payroll Data.
Concepts
Current weekly status (CWS) classifies a person by what they did in the 7 days before the survey: employed if they worked at least one hour on any day, unemployed if they sought or were available for work but did not work. It responds faster to changes than the annual usual status measure (activity over the past 365 days), and gives a higher unemployment rate, so the two should not be compared directly. LFPR is the share of the population in the labour force; WPR is the share employed.
Still to come on this page
MGNREGA work demand (the scheme's reports sit behind slow, form-based pages; being worked on). Checklist: docs/guidebook/05-pages/jobs.md.