Female LFPR maintains upward momentum Unemployment Rate declines Overall WPR rises Self-employment grew modestly
Female LFPR maintains upward momentum Unemployment Rate declines Overall WPR rises Self-employment grew modestly
A. Introduction
The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) conducted by NSO, MoSPI, is the primary source of data on activity participation and employment-unemployment conditions of the population. The PLFS survey methodology has been modified from January, 2025 to provide monthly and quarterly estimates of labour force indicators for both rural and urban India under the CWS framework.
Considering the need to generate high-frequency labour force indicators with wider coverage, the sampling methodology of the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) was revamped from January, 2025. The redesigned PLFS aims to achieve the following objectives:
Earlier PLFS Quarterly Bulletins released up to December, 2024, presented labour market indicators only for urban areas. The Bulletin for April – June, 2025 marked the first in the series to provide estimates for both rural and urban areas and the current Bulletin for October – December, 2025 is the third in the series. In this Quarterly Bulletin, efforts have been made to provide estimates of the number of workers in absolute terms.
This Quarterly Bulletin presents estimates of key labour force indicators—Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR), Unemployment Rate (UR), and the distribution of workers by broad employment status and industry of work – in the Current Weekly Status (CWS), separately for rural and urban areas at the all-India level. In addition, state-level estimates of LFPR, WPR, and UR in CWS are also provided for selected States.
Key findings for persons of age 15 years and above following CWS:
Female LFPR showed increasing trend, increased to 34.9% in October-December, 2025 from 33.7% in July-September 2025.
The overall WPR of age 15 years and above rose to 53.1% in October-December, 2025 from 52.2% observed in the previous quarter.
Both rural and urban UR among persons aged 15 years and above declined during October-December, 2025.
Using the projected population figures of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), the absolute number of workers aged 15 years and above has been estimated. During the quarter July–September 2025, an average of 56.2 crore persons were employed in the country, comprising 39.6 crore males and 16.6 crore females. This increased to 57.4 crore during October–December 2025, of which 40.2 crore were males and 17.2 crore were females.
At the all-India level, the quarterly estimates are based on information collected from a total of 5,61,108 persons surveyed.
persons surveyed in rural areas
3,21,040
persons surveyed in urban areas
2,40,068
The Quarterly Bulletin for the quarter October–December, 2025 is available on the website of the Ministry (https://www.mospi.gov.in).
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