Why in the news
The monthly PLFS bulletin for April 2025 gave fresh employment and unemployment indicators, showing weak female and youth labour outcomes.
About the revamped PLFS
- Started January 2025 to deliver monthly indicators for rural and urban India.
- Uses Current Weekly Status (CWS): activity in the 7 days before the survey.
- Rotational panel sampling: each household is visited 4 times over 4 months.
- April 2025 sample: 7,511 FSUs (4,140 rural, 3,371 urban); 89,434 households; 3,80,838 persons.
Headline indicators (age 15+)
| Indicator | India | Rural | Urban |
|---|
| LFPR | 55.6% | 58.0% | 50.7% |
| WPR | 52.8% | 55.4% | 47.4% |
| Unemployment rate | 5.1% | 4.5% | 6.5% |
- Unemployment by sex: male 5.2%, female 5.0%.
Youth (15-29 years)
| Indicator | Overall | Male | Female |
|---|
| LFPR | 42.7% | 62.0% | 23.1% |
| WPR | 36.8% | 53.6% | 19.8% |
| Unemployment rate | 13.8% | 13.6% | 14.4% |
- Urban young women: lowest LFPR (21.5%) and WPR (16.4%) but highest unemployment (23.7%).
- Urban youth unemployment: 17.2%.
Definitions
- LFPR: share of the population working or seeking work.
- WPR: employed persons as a share of total population.
- UR: unemployed as a share of the labour force.
Concerns
- Female participation and employment stay very low, notably in cities and among the young.
- Youth joblessness is a major worry.
Exam angle
- Approach: Current Weekly Status; each household revisited four times.
- Release carries PIB attribution; not comparable to pre-2025 PLFS.