Unemployment rate inches up in 2024, women’s participation drops

New Delhi: India's overall unemployment rate for individuals aged 15 and above increased slightly during calendar year 2024. Additionally, labour force participation dropped, with more women leaving the workforce compared to the previous year, according to the government's periodic labour force survey (PLFS) released on Wednesday.

The data released by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MoSPI) showed that the unemployment rate, including urban and rural areas, rose marginally from 3.1% in 2023 to 3.2% in 2024.

The unemployment rate in rural areas rose from 2.4% to 2.5%, while in urban areas it fell from 5.2% to 5%.

Female unemployment rate in urban areas fell from 7.5% to 6.7%, while in rural regions it rose from 1.9% to 2.1%.

During the same period, male unemployment rate in rural areas rose from 2.7% to 2.8%, while male unemployment rate in urban areas remained flat at 4.4%.

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The labour force participation rate (LFPR), which includes both men and women across rural and urban areas, saw a marginal decline from 59.8% in 2023 to 59.6% in 2024.

Women's LFPR declined from 41.3% to 40.3%, while male LFRP rose from 78.3% to 79.2% during the reporting period.

The survey is based on labour force indicators using the usual status approach, which combines principal and subsidiary activity statuses.

A person’s principal status is based on the activity they spent the most time on during the past year preceding the survey, while any additional economic activity performed for 30 days or more in that year counts as their subsidiary status.

The PLFS covered 12,749 first-stage units or FSUs (6,982 villages and 5,767 urban blocks), surveying 101,957 households and 415,549 individuals.

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Meanwhile, under the current weekly status (CWS) survey, the unemployment rate inched down to 4.9% in 2024 from 5% in 2023, suggesting a slight improvement in employment conditions across the country. This rate under the CWS is determined based on a reference period of the last seven days preceding the date of the survey.

Under the CWS survey, the unemployment rate in rural areas dipped to 4.3% in 2024 from 4.3% a year earlier, with marginal declines observed among both men and women. Meanwhile, the urban unemployment rate remained steady at 6.7%.

Joblessness among urban men rose slightly to 6.1% from 6% in the above-mentioned period. The rate for women dropped notably to 8.2% from 8.9%, offsetting the increase among men.

Improvements were observed across all categories, notably in urban worker population ratio (WPR) from 47% to 47.6%, between 2023 and 2024, while the all-India WPR remained largely unchanged (53.4% to 53.5%) during the same period.

"Decline in unpaid helpers in household enterprises seems to have contributed to the drop in WPR as well as LFPR among rural females, as the percentage of helpers in Household Enterprises decreased from 19.9% to 18.1% from 2023 to 2024," the survey said.