India’s labour market continued to show steady improvement in September 2025, with rising rural participation driving female employment to its highest level since May. According to the latest Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) Monthly Bulletin, the overall Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) climbed to 55.3%.
The data also revealed a sustained increase in rural women’s participation, with the female LFPR reaching 34.1% in September – the highest since May 2025 and the third consecutive month of growth. This increase was largely driven by rural areas, where female LFPR improved from 35.2% in June to 37.9% in September.
Female participation in the labour force has been steadily rising, signaling stronger economic inclusion in rural India. The survey found that female Worker Population Ratio (WPR) for those aged 15 years and above increased from 30.2% in June to 32.3% in September. In rural areas, female WPR jumped from 33.6% to 36.3% during the same period.
This growing rural workforce was a major contributor to the overall WPR reaching 52.4% in September, the highest since May 2025.
The steady growth in rural female employment points to a more inclusive and resilient labour market highlighting the trend’s alignment with broader economic activity in the rural sector.
While participation rates improved, the Unemployment Rate (UR) saw a slight uptick. Overall UR rose to 5.2% in September, up from 5.1% in August, after two months of decline.
Rural unemployment increased from 4.3% to 4.6%, while urban unemployment edged up from 6.7% to 6.8%.
Urban women experienced the sharpest increase, with UR climbing from 8.9% to 9.3%. Rural female unemployment also inched upward, contributing to a rise in the overall female UR to 5.5%.
Male UR increased moderately as well — from 4.5% to 4.7% in rural areas and from 5.9% to 6.0% in urban areas.
The bulletin reflects data collected from 3,75,703 individuals across the country – 2,15,051 in rural and 1,60,652 in urban areas. It forms part of the PLFS series that transitioned in January 2025 to provide more frequent monthly and quarterly estimates of key labour indicators.
The full PLFS Monthly Bulletin for September 2025 is available on the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation website: https://new.mospi.gov.in/publications-reports.
