India's urban unemployment rate fell to 6.8 percent in January-March from 7.2 percent in the last quarter of 2022, according to data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on May 29.
At 6.8 percent, the rate of unemployment in Indian cities is the lowest ever since the government began its Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) in 2018-19. The survey, published on a quarterly basis for urban data, measures the unemployment rate in terms of Current Weekly Status.
As per this definition, a person is considered employed if they worked for at least one hour on any day during the seven days preceding the day they are surveyed.
In January-March, India's urban unemployment rate fell even as the Labour Force Participation Rate increased to 48.5 percent from 48.2 percent the previous quarter. The Labour Force Participation Rate of both men and women rose in the last quarter. While the participation rate of men rose by 20 basis points to 73.5 percen, that of women increased by 40 basis points to 22.7 percent.
One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.
However, the drop in the unemployment rate was larger for men, as it fell 50 basis points from October-December to 6.0 percent in January-March. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for women decreased to 9.2 percent from 9.6 percent, the statistics ministry's latest PLFS report showed.
The latest employment data will be music to the ears of policymakers, with the underlying numbers also suggesting improvements in India's much-debated jobs situation.
As per the latest data, Janury-March saw a rise in the proportion of salaried employees to 48.9 percent from 48.6 percent. At the same time, the percentage of people employed in casual labour declined by 10 basis points to 11.7 percent, while those categorised as self-employed also fell by 10 basis points to 39.5 percent.
However, the proportion of workers classed as 'helper in household enterprise' increased to 6.1 percent from 5.9 percent in October-December.
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