Business EconomyPosted at: Nov 10 2026 7:10PM

New Delhi, Nov 10 (UNI) India's unemployment rate among people aged 15 years and above declined to 5.1% in the July-September quarter of 2026, compared with 5.4% in the preceding April-June quarter, indicating a marginal improvement in labour market conditions. The rate was 5.2% in the corresponding period last year, according to the latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) on Tuesday.
The improvement was largely driven by lower unemployment in rural areas, where the joblessness rate dropped to 4.3% during the September quarter from 4.8% in the previous three months. In urban areas, however, unemployment remained relatively steady at 6.8%, compared with 6.7% in April-June 2026.
The PLFS is the primary official source of information on employment, unemployment and labour force participation in the country. The latest quarterly estimates are based on a survey covering 5,55,593 individuals across India.
A comparison with the year-ago period shows that rural unemployment remained broadly stable, easing marginally from 4.4% in July-September 2025 to 4.3% in the latest quarter. Rural male unemployment declined by 0.3 percentage points to 4.4% from 4.7% during the same period.
In urban India, the unemployment situation recorded modest improvements among both men and women on an annual basis. The joblessness rate among urban males declined from 6.2% to 6.1%, while the corresponding rate for females fell from 9% to 8.8%.
The latest survey also highlighted changes in the composition of employment, with self-employment accounting for a larger proportion of rural jobs during the September quarter.
The share of self-employed workers in rural areas increased to 62.7% in July-September 2026 from 61.4% in the previous quarter. In urban areas, regular wage and salaried employment gained marginally, with its share rising to 49.6% from 49.3%.
At the same time, the proportion of workers dependent on casual labour declined in both rural and urban India. Rural casual employment fell to 21.7% from 22.5% in the previous quarter, while the urban share decreased to 10.7% from 11.1%.
The annual comparison also indicated a decline in casual employment. Its share in rural areas dropped by 0.5 percentage points to 21.7% from 22.2% in July-September 2025. In urban areas, the proportion edged down to 10.7% from 10.9%.
Over the year, rural self-employment remained broadly unchanged, while the share of regular wage and salaried workers increased by 0.6 percentage points. Urban areas recorded a 0.4 percentage point increase in self-employment, even as the proportion of regular wage and salaried workers registered a marginal decline.
The NSO revised the PLFS methodology in January 2025 to enable the release of monthly and quarterly employment estimates for rural and urban India under the Current Weekly Status (CWS) framework. The July-September 2026 bulletin is the sixth quarterly release under the revised system.
The latest data provide an assessment of labour market trends across different regions and employment categories, including self-employment, regular wage or salaried work and casual labour.UNI VK AAB