India’s job market remains largely steady in Q1FY27; unemployment rate eases to 5.5%
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India’s labour market remained largely stable in the April-June quarter of FY27, with the unemployment rate edging down marginally from a year earlier, while the proportion of the working-age population employed or seeking work remained broadly unchanged, according to the latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on Monday.
The unemployment rate for the population aged 15 years and above stood at 5.5% in the April-June quarter, compared with 5.6% a year earlier, indicating limited movement in overall labour market conditions.
The Worker Population Ratio (WPR), which measures the proportion of the working-age population that is employed, stood at 51.4% in June 2026. It was unchanged from the previous month but marginally higher than the 51.2% recorded in June 2025.
The Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), which captures the share of the working-age population that is either employed or actively seeking work, stood at 54.4% in June. The rate was unchanged from May and slightly higher than 54.2% recorded a year earlier.
The data suggests that while India’s labour market has shown some improvement over the past year, the gains have remained modest, with overall employment and labour force participation largely steady.
Urban unemployment improves
The urban labour market showed a relatively stronger improvement, with the unemployment rate among the urban population declining to 6.6% in June 2026 from 7.1% a year earlier.
Rural unemployment, however, remained broadly stable during the period. The WPR in rural areas stood at 53.8% in June, unchanged from the previous month but higher than 53.3% in June 2025. In urban areas, the WPR increased marginally to 46.8% in June from 46.6% in May.
The divergence between rural and urban employment indicators also points to a continued gap in labour market participation across the two segments.
Female labour participation shows mixed trend
Female labour force participation showed a mixed trend during the period. The overall female LFPR stood at 32.7% in June, marginally lower than 32.8% in May but higher than 32% a year earlier.
The improvement was driven largely by rural areas, where female LFPR increased to 36.6% in June from 35.2% a year earlier, a rise of 1.4 percentage points.
In urban areas, however, female LFPR declined slightly to 24.8% from 25.2% in June 2025. The data indicates that the gender gap in labour force participation remains significantly wider in urban areas than in rural India, despite the improvement in female participation in rural areas.
56.6 crore people employed
On average, 56.6 crore people aged 15 years and above were employed in India during April-June 2026, according to the statistics ministry. Of the total, 40.2 crore were men and 16.4 crore were women.
The absolute number of workers aged 15 years and above has been estimated using projected population figures provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, MoSPI said. The quarterly PLFS estimates are based on information collected from 5,59,673 persons surveyed across the country.