India's Unemployment Rate Was 5.0 Per Cent in September 2026, 0.2 Points Lower Than a Year Earlier and Down From 5.5 Per Cent in June, With Rural Women's Labour Force Participation Up a Full Point to 38.9 Per Cent

India’s unemployment rate was 5.0 per cent in September 2026, 0.2 percentage points below the 5.2 per cent of September 2025, according to the National Statistics Office (NSO), which released the figure on 15 October 2026. It is the eighteenth monthly bulletin of the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), the government’s main survey of work and joblessness, and it covers everyone aged 15 and above.

The share of that age group either working or looking for work, known as the labour force participation rate, was 55.5 per cent, up from 55.3 per cent a year earlier. Among rural women it rose by a full point, from 37.9 to 38.9 per cent. The figures below are the ministry’s own, read from its press note, and the September bulletin is the latest available as of 29 October 2026.

From 5.5 per cent in June to 5.0 per cent in September

The four most recent bulletins show a steady move down. The overall unemployment rate was 5.5 per cent in June, 5.1 per cent in July, and 5.0 per cent in both August and September, according to the NSO’s press notes of 15 July, 17 August, 15 September and 15 October. The July note said the rate was lower than both the previous month and July 2025.

Rural India led the fall. The rural unemployment rate was 5.0 per cent in June, 4.5 per cent in July, 4.1 per cent in August and 4.2 per cent in September. Compared with September 2025 it is 0.4 points lower, down from 4.6 per cent.

By gender, the September press note gives male unemployment at 4.9 per cent, 0.2 points lower than a year earlier, and female unemployment at 5.2 per cent, 0.3 points lower. Rural male unemployment fell from 4.7 to 4.4 per cent over the year.

Rural women’s participation, up a point

The overall female labour force participation rate was 34.6 per cent in September, against 34.1 per cent a year earlier. In rural areas it was 38.9 per cent, up from 37.9 per cent. The NSO’s note adds that rural female unemployment, at 3.9 per cent, was the lowest recorded in 2026 and 0.4 points below September 2025.

The worker population ratio, which is the share of people aged 15 and above who are actually employed, moved the same way. It was 52.7 per cent overall, up 0.3 points on the year. For men it was 73.6 per cent, up 0.4 points, and for women 32.8 per cent, up 0.5 points. Rural worker population ratio was 55.5 per cent, up 0.7 points from 54.8 per cent in September 2025.

The path of female participation across the same four bulletins was 32.7 per cent in June, 34.4 per cent in July, 34.8 per cent in August and 34.6 per cent in September.

Urban women’s participation at its highest since October 2025

The press note’s own headline says urban female labour force participation “reached highest level since October 2025”. The figure was 25.9 per cent, up from 25.4 per cent in August. Urban worker population ratio, at 47.2 per cent, was also its highest since October 2025, with urban men up from 70.7 to 71.0 per cent and urban women from 23.2 to 23.5 per cent.

Overall urban participation rose from 50.4 to 50.7 per cent between August and September. The year-on-year comparison is flatter: urban women’s participation was 26.1 per cent in September 2025, so the gain is against the months since, not against last year. The note records a marginal fall in overall urban participation over the year, from 50.9 to 50.7 per cent.

How the survey decides who is unemployed

The monthly bulletins use what the ministry calls the Current Weekly Status. A person’s activity is judged on the seven days before the interview. In the ministry’s definition, a person counts as unemployed in that week if they did not work even one hour on any day but sought work, or were available for work, for at least one hour.

The method changed in January 2025. According to MoSPI’s design note, each selected household is now visited four times in four consecutive months, which lets the ministry publish monthly estimates with 75 per cent of the sample matching between one month and the next. The first monthly bulletin, for April 2025, came out on 15 May 2025 and put unemployment at 5.1 per cent.

The September 2026 estimates rest on interviews with 3,70,513 people (about 3.7 lakh), of whom 2,11,333 were in rural areas and 1,59,180 in urban areas. All of the figures are estimates from this sample.

Why 5.0 per cent and 3.1 per cent are both in the news

The annual figure for 2025 is lower than the monthly one. PTI reported on 28 March 2026 that the PLFS annual survey, covering January to December 2025, put unemployment at 3.1 per cent.

The two numbers use different yardsticks. MoSPI’s design note says the annual estimates are produced in “usual status”, which looks back over 365 days, while the monthly and quarterly estimates use the seven-day week. For example, a person who worked for most of a year but was between jobs in the survey week could count as unemployed in the weekly measure and as employed in the annual one. Comparing 5.0 per cent with 3.1 per cent is therefore not a like-for-like comparison.

The economy these workers sit in grew 7.8 per cent in April to June 2026, as our report on the first-quarter GDP release sets out, and the wider figures sit beside it in India’s GDP rank and the numbers behind it. The Ministry of Rural Development counts a different thing, paid person-days under the rural job guarantee, which our piece on MGNREGA and its successor covers.

What the bulletin did not show rising

Urban unemployment was 6.9 per cent in September, up from 6.8 per cent in August and from 6.8 per cent a year earlier, which the NSO calls broadly stable. Reading the monthly notes in sequence, the urban rate was 6.4 per cent in May, 6.6 in June, 6.7 in July, 6.8 in August and 6.9 in September. Urban female unemployment was 9.2 per cent, up from 8.9 per cent in August.

Overall participation slipped from 55.6 per cent in August to 55.5 per cent, and the rural worker population ratio from 55.8 to 55.5 per cent over the month. The year-on-year fall in unemployment is also not in every month’s data: the April 2026 bulletin put the rate at 5.2 per cent, against 5.1 per cent in April 2025.

Because the survey runs month by month, the October 2026 figures cannot appear before that month ends.