Unemployment Rate (UR) in urban areas decreased to 6.7% during January-March 2024 for persons of age 15 years and above 

Considering the importance of availability of labour force data at more frequent time intervals, National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) launched Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) in April 2017. Twenty-one Quarterly Bulletins of PLFS corresponding to the quarter ending December 2018 to quarter ending December 2023 have already been released. In these quarterly bulletins estimates of labour force indicators, viz., Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR), Unemployment Rate (UR), distribution of workers by broad status in employment and industry of work in the Current Weekly Status (CWS) for urban areas have been presented. The present Quarterly Bulletin is the twenty-second in the series for the quarter January – March 2024.

PLFS fieldwork during the quarter January – March 2024.

The fieldwork for collection of information in respect of all the samples allotted for the period January – March, 2024, was completed timely for the first visit as well as revisit samples, except for 10 first visit FSUs; three each in the State of Manipur and Madhya Pradesh; and one each from Punjab, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh and 38 revisit FSUs (28 from State of Manipur, two each from states of Maharashtra, Telangana & Tamil Nadu and one each from States of Meghalaya, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh & Andhra Pradesh), which were treated as casualty. 

Key Findings-

• Unemployment Rate (UR) in urban areas decreased from 6.8% to 6.7% during January – March 2023 to January – March 2024 for persons of age 15 years and above.
• Female UR decreased from 9.2% in January – March 2023 to 8.5% in January – March 2024. 
• Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) in urban areas has shown an increasing trend from 48.5% to 50.2% during January – March 2023 to January – March 2024 respectively for persons of age 15 years and above.
• Female Labour Force Participation Rate in urban areas rose from 22.7% to 25.6% during January – March 2023 to January – March 2024, reflecting Overall Increasing Trend in LFPR.
• Increasing Trend in Worker Population Ratio (WPR) for persons of age 15 years and above from 45.2% in January – March 2023 to 46.9% in January – March 2024.
• Female Worker Population Ratio in urban areas rose from 20.6% to 23.4% during January – March 2023 to January – March 2024, reflecting Overall Increasing Trend in WPR.