The labour market exhibited varied trends across gender, age, and geographical areas, with rural unemployment increasing.

Updated on: Aug 18, 2026, 08:01:38 IST

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India’s headline unemployment rate came in at 5.1% in July, marginally lower than the 5.2% figure in July last year, although unemployment of people in the 15-29 years age group increased by 0.70 percentage points, a number that is bound to cause concern, especially in the wake of Gen Z protests across India last month. The fact that unemployment in the segment increased despite no change in their labour force participation rate is even more concerning.

The numbers are from Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) on Monday. The headline number is in keeping with the marginal decline seen in unemployment rate in May and June.

To be sure, the trend in unemployment was opposite for men and women; rural and urban areas; and the young and old. Unemployment rate increased by 10 basis points – one basis point is one hundredth of a percentage point — compared to last year in rural areas to 4.5%. In urban areas, the rate decreased by 50 basis points to 6.7%.

Similarly, a gender-wise disaggregation shows that female unemployment increased 30 basis points to 5.4% while male unemployment decreased by 30 basis points to 5%. Youth unemployment – the monthly bulletins give disaggregated data only for the 15-29 age group – also increased by 70 basis points to 15.6%. To be sure, sequentially, unemployment rate fell for even the young and women. However, labour market indicators are usually compared for the same month across years to account for seasonality of jobs, such as those in agriculture.

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