India Unveils First Monthly Jobless Data: April Unemployment at 5.1%

SYNOPSIS

On May 15, 2025, India released its first monthly labour report under the revamped PLFS, showing a 5.1% unemployment rate and 13.8% youth joblessness. Launched in January 2025, the redesigned survey uses a rotational panel and expanded sample for faster, more detailed insights. It now provides monthly updates with a 45-day lag. This marks a major shift toward data-driven, inclusive employment policymaking.

India releases its first-ever monthly jobless data, reporting April unemployment at 5.1%.

In January 2025, India's Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), acting through the National Statistical Office (NSO), published a significantly revamped version of the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) in a bid to improve timeliness, accuracy, and coverage of employment statistics. Central to the reform is the employment of the Current Weekly Status (CWS) approach, which measures individuals' work activities over the past seven days.

One notable enhancement in the new PLFS is the introduction of a panel rotation design, where certain sample households are interviewed four times during four consecutive months. This facilitates month-to-month comparisons of the most important indicators such as the Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR), and Unemployment Rate (UR).

To accomplish representativeness as well as accuracy, the sampling design was raised from 12,800 to 22,692 primary sampling units, which resulted in an increase in the number of households covered annually, from nearly 1.02 lakh to over 2.72 lakh. Every household now provides 12 data points, a higher number than the previous 8, bringing more granularity and robustness to labour statistics. Moreover, the sampling design itself was also revised to better reflect rural-urban disparities and urban-rural proximity, thereby increasing district-level data coverage.

The initial monthly labour market bulletin was published on May 15, 2025, and its data was for April. The report stipulated that the unemployment rate among those 15 years and above was 5.1%, a slightly higher percentage of males (5.2%) compared to females (5.0%). The youth unemployment remained a pressing concern, with a 13.8% unemployment figure among 15–29 year olds nationwide. Urban-rural inequality among young people was high—17.2% of young people in urban areas were unemployed, against 12.3% in rural areas. For April, the LFPR was 55.6% and the WPR was 52.8%. There were employment gaps by sex and location: rural women had a WPR of 36.8%, while for urban women it was as low as 23.5%.

These findings were based on a sample of over 89,000 households and approximately 3.81 lakh individuals in 7,511 locations. From the year 2025, the annual PLFS results will be brought out based on the calendar year i.e. survey period of January – December of a specific year (e.g. January 2025 – December 2025). This change in disseminating the PLFS will assist in the timely updation of India’s labour market statistics in the databases maintained by the international agencies. The new system's capacity to provide information with only a 45-day delay makes it an essential instrument for policymakers working towards inclusive and timely labour interventions.

In short, the redesigned PLFS is a watershed moment in India's labour data infrastructure, providing quicker, richer, and more robust insights that will enhance evidence-based policy-making, particularly when job growth with inclusivity is a national imperative.

Harsh Raj