Unemployment Rate In India: The unemployment rate among people aged 15 years and above in India has decreased in the October-December quarter as compared to the previous quarter. This information was given in the data released by the Statistics Ministry on Tuesday. Official data showed that the unemployment rate in rural areas declined to 4 percent in October-December 2025, from 4.4 percent in the previous quarter. This decline was due to a decline in the unemployment rate for both rural men and women.

The unemployment rate for urban persons aged 15 years and above declined to 6.7 percent compared to 6.9 percent in the previous quarter. The decline was driven by a decline in the unemployment rate for urban men, which dropped from 6.2 per cent in the July-September figure to 5.9 per cent in October-December 2025.

Increase in the number of working people

The overall labor force participation rate (LFPR) for persons aged 15 years and above increased to 55.8 per cent during October-December, higher than 55.1 per cent in the previous quarter. This shows increase in employment. The LFPR of women aged 5 years and above recorded a significant increase to 34.9 per cent in October-December 2025, compared to 33.7 per cent during July-September 2025.

Another indicator of employment, the Worker Population Ratio (WPR) of persons aged 15 years and above, increased from 52.2 per cent in July-September 2025 to 53.1 per cent in October-December 2025. During April-June 2025 to October-December 2025, the rural WPR of persons aged 15 years and above continued to increase across both genders.

Self-employment increased in rural and urban areas

An increase in self-employment was observed in both rural and urban areas. The number of self-employed persons aged 15 years and above in rural areas increased to 63.2 percent during October-December, from 62.8 percent in the previous quarter. The number of self-employed persons of the same age group in urban areas was recorded at 39.7 percent in the October-December quarter, whereas it was 39.3 percent in the previous quarter.

People got employment from agriculture sector

agricultural sector rural employment 58.5 per cent of employed persons aged 15 and above during the quarter belonged to the agriculture sector, up from 57.7 per cent in the previous quarter.