Government plans unemployment estimates for nearly 50 major cities to deepen labour market tracking

Govt plans to track city level unemployment

• Government to publish city-level unemployment data for 50 cities
• Major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru to be included
• City-level data aims to improve policy insights and job tracking

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The government is planning to publish city-level unemployment estimates for nearly 50 major urban centres, sources familiar with the development told Moneycontrol.

The proposed dataset is expected to include major million-plus cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Pune and Jaipur, along with other urban centres ranging from Greater Visakhapatnam and Patna to Kanpur, Lucknow. The survey is also expected to cover Prime Minister's constituency Varanasi, along with Rajasthan's education hub Kota and Mysore in Karnataka.

Currently, the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) publishes unemployment indicators at the national, state and urban-rural levels, but city-level labour market estimates are not available.

Large cities account for a substantial share of formal employment, services sector activity, start-up ecosystems and gig economy jobs, making them important measures of labour market momentum.

The new framework is expected to provide policymakers with better insights into sectoral employment shifts, migration trends and job creation patterns in urban areas. More granular data could also help governments assess the impact of policy measures and infrastructure investments at the city level.

The government is also planning to track a migration survey after a hiatus of decade to determine mobility trends across the country.

At present, national unemployment indicators are released every month, while state-level estimates are published quarterly under the PLFS framework. The proposed city-level unemployment estimates are also likely to be released alongside the quarterly state-level data once the system is operational.

The move forms part of a broader push by the government to expand the scope of official surveys and strengthen statistical monitoring of economic activity. Authorities have already begun working toward district-level data in several surveys, and a similar approach is likely to be extended to other statistics.

The ministry is also pushing states to release district level GDP numbers in a timely manner to assess the economic momentum across India's major hubs.