India's urban unemployment rate dropped to 6.6% in April-June

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• Oct 9, 2023 | Dhupali Das

India's urban unemployment rate declined to 6.6 percent in the first quarter of 2023–24, down from...

Digital Desk: India's urban unemployment rate declined to 6.6 percent in the first quarter of 2023–24, down from 6.8 percent in January–March, according to data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on October 9, 2023.

At 6.6 percent, the rate of unemployment in Indian cities is the lowest recorded by the government's Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) since it started in 2018-19. The survey, which is published quarterly for urban data, estimates the unemployment rate in terms of Current Weekly Status (CWS). As per this definition, a person is considered as employed if they worked for at least an hour on any day during the seven days preceding the day they are surveyed.

"Unemployment rate for persons of age 15 years and above in CWS ranged from 7.8 percent to 9.7 percent during the pre-pandemic period. The unemployment rate during April-June 2023 was 6.6 percent, which is lower than the unemployment rates observed in the quarters covered in the pre-pandemic period," the statistics ministry said.

In April-June, India's urban unemployment rate declined even as the labor force participation rate climbed to 48.8 percent from 48.5 percent the previous quarter. While the male labor force participation rate remained constant in April–June at 73.5 percent, the female rate increased by 50 basis points to 23.2 percent.

One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.

Despite the fact that the female labor force participation rate increased while the male rate did not, the unemployment rate for both men and women decreased by 10 basis points to 5.9 percent and 9.1 percent, respectively.