Unemployment declines marginally to 6.7% in October-December 2025: NSO

11 Feb 2026 Evaluate

The National Statistics Office (NSO) in its quarterly Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) has showed that the rate of unemployment among persons aged 15 years and above in cities declined marginally to 6.7 per cent in October-December 2025 from 6.9 per cent in the previous quarter. In rural areas, the unemployment rate (UR) or joblessness among those aged 15 years and above declined to 4 per cent in October-December 2025 from 4.4 per cent in the previous quarter (July-September 2025), helped by lower unemployment rates among rural males as well as females.

The urban unemployment rate for the 15-year-old and above decreased to 6.7 per cent as compared to 6.9 per cent reported in the preceding quarter. The lower rate of unemployment was driven by a decline in urban male UR from 6.2 per cent during July-September, 2025, to 5.9 per cent in the quarter under review. Both rural and urban UR among persons aged 15 years and above declined during October-December 2025. The proportion of self-employed persons aged 15 years and above in rural areas increased to 63.2 per cent during October-December 2025, up from 62.8 per cent recorded in the July-September quarter. In urban areas, the share of self-employed persons of the same age group stood at 39.7 per cent during the quarter ending December 2025, compared to 39.3 per cent recorded in July-September 2025.

About the concentration of rural workforce in the primary sector and urban workforce in the tertiary sector, the data showed that rural areas maintained a similar pattern, with a majority of workers engaged in the agriculture sector, accounting for 58.5 per cent during October-December 2025, up from 57.7 per cent quarter-on-quarter. In urban areas, the tertiary sector remained stable, engaging 61.9 per cent of workers during October-December 2025.

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