India’s unemployment rate declined in July 2026, while labour force participation increased, pointing to an improvement in labour market participation during the month.
According to the latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) released by the National Statistics Office (NSO), the unemployment rate (UR) among people aged 15 years and above fell to 5.1% in July from 5.5% in June.
Urban rate remains steady
The decline was more pronounced in rural areas, where unemployment fell to 4.5% in July from 5% in June. In urban India, however, the rate remained broadly unchanged at 6.7%, compared with 6.6% in the previous month.
Compared with July 2025, the overall unemployment rate and rural rate remained broadly stable. Urban unemployment, meanwhile, improved by 0.5 percentage point from 7.2% a year earlier.
Male unemployment also showed improvement. The overall rate for men aged 15 years and above fell to 5% in July from 5.3% in June. Rural male unemployment declined to 4.6%, while the urban male rate fell to 5.9% from 6.6% a year earlier.
For women, the overall and rural unemployment rates declined from June levels but remained higher than those recorded in July 2025. Urban female unemployment increased to 8.8% in July from 8.4% in June and was broadly similar to the 8.7% recorded a year earlier.
Labour force participation rises
The survey also showed a notable increase in the Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR). At the national level, LFPR for people aged 15 years and above rose to 55.4% in July from 54.4% in June.
Rural participation increased sharply to 58% from 56.6%, while urban LFPR edged up to 50.4% from 50.1%.
Female participation recorded an especially strong monthly increase. Overall female LFPR rose from 32.7% in June to 34.4% in July. Rural female participation climbed to 38.8%, while urban female LFPR increased to 25.3%.
The July estimates were based on information collected from 3,71,021 persons across India. The July 2026 bulletin is the 16th monthly edition in the PLFS series.
