India, May 11 -- The Government of India has issued a release:

Snapshots:

Female LFPR remained broadly unchanged, recording 34.7% in January-March, 2026.

Urban WPR for persons of age 15 years and above remained stable at 46.9% in January-March, 2026.

Urban UR for persons of age 15 years and above showed declining trend.

In rural areas, share of regular wage/salaried workers witnessed a modest rise during January-March, 2026.

Share of rural employment in both secondary and tertiary sector recorded an increase in January-March, 2026.

At the all-India level, the quarterly estimates are based on information collected from a total of 5,61,822 persons surveyed.

persons surveyed in rural areas

persons surveyed in urban areas

The Quarterly Bulletin for the quarter January-March, 2026 is available on the website of the Ministry (https://www.mospi.gov.in).

Scan the QR code to access the Publications/ Reports

3,20,387

2,41,435

​​​​​​​

A. Introduction

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.

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:

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 January - March, 2026 is the fourth in the series. In this Quarterly Bulletin, efforts have been made to provide estimates of the number of workers in absolute terms.

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.

Key findings for persons of age 15 years and above following CWS:

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, 57.4 crore persons aged 15 years and above were employed in the country during the quarter January-March, 2026, of which 40.2 crore were male and 17.2 crore were female.

Click here for PDF

Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.