PERIODIC LABOUR FORCE SURVEY (PLFS) Quarterly Bulletin July – September, 2025
PERIODIC LABOUR FORCE SURVEY (PLFS) Quarterly Bulletin July – September, 2025
Snapshot:
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 for the country.
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 July – September 2025 is the second 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:
Overall LFPR posted a modest gain, reaching 55.1% in July–September 2025.
Female LFPR showed upward momentum, moving up from 33.4% in April–June 2025 to 33.7% in July–September 2025.
The overall female WPR rose to 32.0% in July–September 2025, up from 31.6% in the previous quarter.
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. On average, 56.2 crore persons (aged 15 years and above) were employed in the country during the quarter of July–September 2025, of which 39.6 crore were male and 16.6 crore were female.
At the all-India level, the quarterly estimates are based on information collected from a total of 5,64,828 persons surveyed.
persons surveyed in rural areas
3,22,992
persons surveyed in urban areas
2,41,836
The Quarterly Bulletin for the quarter July – September 2025 is available on the website of the Ministry (https://www.mospi.gov.in).
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