Unemployment rate falls to 5.2% in Jul-Sep, share of urban salaried jobs rises

Salaried employment is considered better than casual labour and self-employment on account of the social security benefits as well as the regular source of income it provides.

For males, salaried employment in urban areas rose 50 basis points (bps) to 48 per cent in July-September, while for females it increased 40 bps to 55.5 per cent. On the whole, salaried jobs made up 49.8 per cent of employment in urban areas in July-September, up from 49.4 per cent in April-June.

In rural areas, while the share of salaried jobs did decline, they account for a far smaller portion of employment. In July-September, salaried jobs accounted for 15 per cent of rural employment, down from 15.4 per cent in April-June, MoSPI data showed.

The jobs data is based on the Current Weekly Status (CWS) approach. Under this approach, the activity status of a person is measured for the seven days preceding the date of survey. The PLFS report for July-September is the second-ever by MoSPI under the revamped PLFS methodology. Previous quarterly reports were only for urban areas.

Farm to the fore

While salaried jobs are dominant in urban areas, it is agriculture that is the biggest employer in rural regions. And in July-September, the share of agriculture jobs rose even further.

“The increase in the share of rural employment in the agriculture sector from 53.5 per cent to 57.7 per cent during July–September 2025 can be attributed to Kharif agricultural operations,” the statistics ministry said in a statement.

The increase was larger for males, with the share of farm jobs rising by almost 5 percentage points to 49.2 per cent. Females in rural areas, though, saw agriculture provide 74.2 per cent of all jobs in July-September. In April-June, the proportion stood at 71 per cent.

Women, youth in the workforce

The unemployment rate at an all-India level was 5.2 per cent for both males and females in July-September. However, in urban areas, the unemployment rate saw an uptick of 10 bps to 6.9 per cent – males saw joblessness rise to 6.2 per cent from 6.1 per cent, while females saw it rise similarly to 9 per cent from 8.9 per cent.

The marginal rise in urban unemployment occurred amid a slight increase in the Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), which measures the fraction of the population seeking work.

In July-September, the urban LFPR for those aged 15 years and above rose 10 bps to 50.7 per cent. The female LFPR, up 20 bps at 25.8 per cent, was almost one-third of the male LFPR of 75.3 per cent.

Among the youth, the unemployment rate edged up to 14.8 per cent in July-September from 14.6 per cent in April-June. Youth unemployment refers to those in the 15-29 years age bracket.

The rise in the youth unemployment rate was particularly noteworthy in urban areas, with young men seeing joblessness go up by 40 bps to 16.2 per cent while young women saw it rise by 60 bps to 25.3 per cent. On the whole, urban youth unemployment was up at 18.4 per cent from 17.9 per cent even as the youth LFPR was broadly steady at 41.4 per cent.

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