Labour force participation rises to 55.5% in July–September; rural unemployment falls to 4.3%

More Indians were working or looking for work in July–September: the labour force participation rate (LFPR) for people aged 15 and above rose to 55.5% from 54.6% in the previous quarter, according to the latest Periodic Labour Force Survey bulletin from the National Statistics Office.

The bulletin, released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, is the sixth in the quarterly series that covers both rural and urban India. It measures activity in the "current weekly status", meaning what people were doing in the week before the survey.

The main numbers

• Participation: overall LFPR rose to 55.5%, driven by gains in both rural and urban areas. Rural LFPR was 58.1%, up 0.9 percentage points from a year earlier.
• Employment: the worker population ratio (WPR), the share of the population that is working, stood at 52.7%, up 1.0 percentage point from the previous quarter. Rural WPR rose 1.4 percentage points to 55.6%.
• Unemployment: the rural unemployment rate fell to 4.3% from 4.8% in the previous quarter.
• Type of work: the share of regular wage or salaried jobs in urban areas rose 0.3 percentage points to 49.6%. In rural areas the share of self-employed workers rose 1.3 percentage points to 62.7%, and agriculture's share of rural employment rose 3.8 percentage points to 56.7%.

What is new in this bulletin

For the first time in the series, the National Statistics Office has also tried to estimate the number of workers in absolute terms, alongside the usual percentages. State-level estimates of LFPR, WPR and unemployment are given for selected states.

The survey methodology was revamped in January 2025 to produce monthly and quarterly estimates for rural and urban India. The release carries detailed annex tables; the full statement is at the source link below.

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Source: official release by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation, issued through the Press Information Bureau, Government of India (10 NOV 2026 4:00PM by PIB Delhi). Read the full official text: Press Note on Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) Quarterly Bulletin July-September 2026.