India’s overall unemployment rate was unchanged in June | Today’s news

New Delhi: India’s unemployment rate for people aged 15 and above remained unchanged at 5.5% in June from May as a rise in urban unemployment was offset by a slight easing in rural unemployment.

Urban unemployment rose to 6.6% in June from 6.4% in May, with unemployment rising for both men and women, according to the latest monthly bulletin of the Periodic Labor Force Survey (PLFS-M), released by the statistics ministry on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, rural unemployment fell to 5.0% from 5.1% in May. Rural male unemployment fell to 4.9% from 5.2%, while rural female unemployment rose to 5.0% from 4.7%.

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Compared to June 2025, rural unemployment increased slightly from 4.9% to 5.0%, while urban unemployment fell from 7.1% to 6.6%, the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation (MoSPI) said.

The overall labor force participation rate (LFPR) for those aged 15 and over was unchanged at 54.4% in June, up slightly from 54.2% a year earlier.

The urban LFPR rose to 50.1% from May’s 49.8%, while the rural LFPR remained stable at 56.6%.

The female LFPR was 32.7% in June, down slightly from 32.8% in May, but up 0.7 percentage points from the 32.0% recorded in June 2025.

The working-age ratio (WPR) for those aged 15 and over was unchanged at 51.4% in June. The rural WPR held steady at 53.8%, while the urban WPR improved marginally to 46.8% from 46.6% in May.

The PLFS, conducted by the National Statistics Office under the MoSPI, is India’s primary employment and unemployment survey. From January 2025, its methodology was revised to provide monthly and quarterly estimates of key labor market indicators – including the labor force participation rate, the share of the working population and the unemployment rate – using the current weekly status approach.

The June estimates are based on responses from 372,852 individuals, including 212,390 in rural areas and 160,462 in urban areas.