The second quarterly PLFS under the new series was released, which presents estimates of key labour force indicators

The second quarterly PLFS under the new series was released, which presents estimates of key labour force indicators.

Key Findings

¨     Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR): Overall LFPR for persons aged 15 and above stabilized at 55.1% during July-September 2025, compared to 55.0% in the previous quarter.A slight uptick was observed in both rural and urban areas, with rural LFPR inching up from 57.1% to 57.2%, and urban LFPR also rising slightly from 50.6% to 50.7%.

¨     Female LFPR: The overall LFPR among females of age 15 years and above increased to 33.7% in July-September 2025 from 33.4% in the previous quarter.The increase was largely driven by an increase in female LFPR in rural areas from 37.0% to 37.5% in the same period.

¨     Unemployment Rate (UR): Overall unemployment rate for persons aged 15 years and above declined to 5.2% in July–September 2025 from 5.4% in the previous quarter.The UR saw divergent trends across rural and urban areas. While Rural unemployment declined from 4.8% to 4.4%, Urban unemployment edged up slightly from 6.8% to 6.9%.

¨     Worker Population Ratio (WPR): The WPR rose marginally to 52.2% from 52.0%, with rural WPR at 54.7% and urban WPR at 47.2% for persons aged 15 years and above.The overall female WPR rose to 32.0% in July–September 2025, up from 31.6% in the previous quarter.

Employment Types

¨     Self-employment dominated rural employment, increasing from 60.7% to 62.8%.

¨     In urban areas, regular wage or salaried employment showed marginal improvement, rising from 49.4% to 49.8%.

Sectoral Employment

¨     Rural workforce continued to concentrate in agriculture, with its share rising from 53.5% to 57.7%, attributed to seasonal agricultural activity.

¨     Urban workforce was largely employed in the tertiary sector, which engaged 62.0% of urban workers, slightly higher than 61.7% in the previous quarter.

Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS)

¨     The PLFS was conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).

¨     It serves as the key data source on labour market activity and employment-unemployment trends throughout India.

Methodological Revamp from January 2025

¨     From January 2025, the PLFS underwent a comprehensive methodological update with wider coverage across both rural and urban India under the Current Weekly Status (CWS) framework.

¨     This redesign introduced monthly and quarterly estimation cycles for key employment indicators to better capture labour market dynamics.

Objectives of the Redesigned PLFS

¨     To release monthly national-level estimates of Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR) and Unemployment Rate (UR) for rural and urban areas under the CWS framework.

¨     To expand quarterly PLFS coverage to include rural areas, enabling nationwide quarterly labour market estimates under CWS.

¨     To provide annual estimates of key employment and unemployment indicators under both Usual Status and Current Weekly Status for rural and urban areas.

Coverage and Reporting Enhancements

¨     The April-June 2025 bulletin marked the first time that estimates for both rural and urban populations were included.

¨     The July-September 2025 bulletin further builds on this by presenting the number of workers in absolute terms alongside key indicators.

¨     Additionally, this bulletin offers state-level estimates of LFPR, WPR, and UR for selected states, again separately for rural and urban regions.