Overview

• Rural unemployment dropped to 4.4% in July, while the urban rate edged up to 7.2%, indicating divergent labour-market conditions.
• Youth joblessness fell to 14.9% nationwide, with rural youth at 13% and urban youth at 19%, according to the PLFS.
• The labour-force participation rate for those 15 and older rose to 54.9%, with female participation up to 33.3% as male participation held at 77.1%; the worker-population ratio reached 52% (rural 54.4%, urban 47%).
• The new quarterly bulletin for April–June put overall unemployment at 5.4% and highlighted sharp state gaps, from 8.8% in Rajasthan to 2.2% in Gujarat, with youth unemployment highest in Himachal Pradesh at 29.6% and lowest in Gujarat at 5.6%.
• Officials attributed July’s improvement largely to seasonal rural hiring tied to agriculture, with the revamped survey covering 89,505 households and 379,222 individuals.