India, Aug. 10 -- The Government of India has issued a release:
Snapshots of Quarterly Bulletin of PLFS April to June 2026:
Urban LFPR for persons of age 15 years and above remains unchanged at 50.2% in April-June, 2026.
Urban WPR for persons of age15 years and above stable at 46.8% in April-June, 2026
Urban UR (age 15+ years) showed broad stability at 6.7%.
Regular wage/salaried employees increased in both rural and urban areas in April-June, 2026 quarter in comparison to previous quarter
In rural areas worker engagement in secondary sector increased to 24.4% in April-June, 2026 from 22.6% in previous quarter.
Persons surveyed in urban areas
Persons surveyed in rural areas
At the all-India level, the quarterly estimates are based on information collected from a total of 5,59,673 persons surveyed.
The Quarterly Bulletin for the quarter April-June, 2026 is available on the website of the Ministry (https://www.mospi.gov.in).
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· The overall Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) for persons aged 15 years and above was 54.6% during April-June 2026, compared to 55.5% in the previous quarter.
The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) conducted by NSO, MoSPI, is the primary source of data on activity participation and employment-unemployment conditions of the population. The PLFS survey methodology has been modified from January, 2025 to provide monthly and quarterly estimates of labour force indicators for both rural and urban India under the CWS framework.
2,40,881
3,18,792
· The urban LFPR for persons aged 15 years and above remained unchanged at 50.2% during April-June 2026.
Considering the need to generate high-frequency labour force indicators with wider coverage, the sampling methodology of the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) was revamped from January, 2025. The redesigned PLFS aims to achieve the following objectives:
· The male LFPR (15 years and above) in urban areas increased marginally to 75.3% in April-June 2026, from 75.0% in the previous quarter.
· The urban Worker Population Ratio (WPR) for persons aged 15 years and above remained stable at 46.8% during April-June 2026.
Earlier PLFS Quarterly Bulletins released up to December, 2024, presented labour market indicators only for urban areas. The Bulletin for April - June, 2025 marked the first in the series to provide estimates for both rural and urban areas and the current Bulletin for April - June, 2026 is the fifth in the series. In this Quarterly Bulletin, efforts have been made to provide estimates of the number of workers in absolute terms.
· The share of regular wage/salaried employees among persons aged 15 years and above increased in both rural and urban areas, rising from 15.5% to 16.1% in rural areas and from 48.9% to 49.3% in urban areas.
This Quarterly Bulletin presents estimates of key labour force indicators - Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR), Unemployment Rate (UR), and the distribution of workers by broad employment status and industry of work - in the Current Weekly Status (CWS), separately for rural and urban areas at the all-India level. In addition, state-level estimates of LFPR, WPR, and UR in CWS are also provided for selected States.
· The share of employment in the secondary sector for persons aged 15 years and above increased in both rural and urban areas during April-June 2026.
Key findings for persons of age 15 years and above following CWS:
· The share of employment in the tertiary sector for persons aged 15 years and above recorded an increase in rural areas during April-June 2026.
· The urban Unemployment Rate (UR) for persons aged 15 years and above remained broadly stable at 6.7% during April-June 2026.
The overall LFPR during the quarter April-June, 2026 registered a modest fall of 0.4 percentage points compared to April-June, 2025. Rural LFPR is almost stable at 56.9% during the current quarter compared to 57.1% recorded during the same quarter of 2025, while the urban LFPR experienced a decrease of 0.4 percentage points.
In comparison to the same quarter of the previous year, engagement in the tertiary sector increased from 22.1% in April-June, 2025 to 22.7% in April-June, 2026 in rural areas. In urban areas, engagement in the tertiary sector increased from 61.7% to 62.0% during the same period.
The overall WPR recorded a decline of 0.3 percentage points, from April-June, 2025 to April-June, 2026. The male WPR remained nearly unchanged during this period, while the female WPR was estimated at 31.3% in April-June, 2026, as against 31.6% in April-June, 2025.
Using the projected population figures of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), the absolute number of workers aged 15 years and above has been estimated. On average, 56.6 crore persons aged 15 years and above were employed in the country during the quarter April-June, 2026, of which 40.2 crore were male and 16.4 crore were female.
* Overall Unemployment Rate (UR) in urban areas remained stable: Overall UR in urban areas for persons of age 15 years and above remained broadly stable at 6.7 % during the present quarter compared to 6.6% in the previous quarter, while it edged up marginally to 4.8% in the current quarter from 4.3% in the previous quarter, in rural areas. Female urban UR decreased to 8.7% in the current quarter from 9.1% in the last quarter.
In comparison to last year, in the same quarter, the UR at the person level in rural areas remained at the same level as in the present quarter (4.8%). The UR for rural male decreased to 4.8% in April-June, 2026 from 5.0% in April-June, 2025. In urban areas, the quarter-to-quarter comparison with the previous year shows stability for male and person-level UR, whereas the female UR decreased to 8.7% from 8.9%.
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A quarter-to-quarter comparison with the same period of the previous year also indicates increased engagement of workers in regular wage/salaried employment from 15.4% in April-June, 2025 to 16.1% in April-June, 2026 in rural areas. In urban areas, the engagement of workers in regular wage/salaried employment remained almost at the same level (49.4% vs 49.3%) during the period.
Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.
