Unemployment rate falls to 6.6% in September quarter: Govt survey

The unemployment rate for people aged 15 and over in urban areas fell to 6.6 percent in the September quarter from 7.2 percent a year ago, the National Sample Survey (NSSO) showed.

Unemployment, or unemployment rate, is defined as the percentage of unemployed people in the labor force.

Unemployment was high in the July-September period, mainly due to the staggering impact of the Covid-related restrictions in the country.

The unemployment rate in the March quarter of the previous fiscal stood at 6.8 percent, while in April-June it was 6.6 percent. In the third quarter of the previous budget year the percentage was 7.2 percent.

The unemployment rate for people aged 15 years and above in July-September 2022 was 7.2 percent in urban areas, the 20th Periodic Labor Force Survey (PLFS) showed.

It also showed that the unemployment rate among women (aged 15 and above) in urban areas fell to 8.6 percent in July-September from 9.4 percent in the same quarter a year ago.

In April-June it was 9.1 percent, in January-March 9.2 percent and in October-December 2022 9.6 percent.

Among men, the unemployment rate in urban areas fell to six percent in July-September, compared with 6.6 percent in the year-ago period. In April-June 2023 it was 5.9 percent, in January-March 2023 6 percent and in October-December 2022 6.5 percent.

The Current Weekly Status (CWS) employment rate in urban areas for people aged 15 years and above increased from 47.9 percent in the same period a year ago to 49.3 percent in the July-September 2023 quarter. In April-June In 2023 this was 48.8 percent, in January-March 2023 48.5 percent and in October-December 2022 48.2 percent.

The labor force refers to the part of the population that provides or offers to provide labor for the performance of economic activities for the production of goods and services, and therefore includes both employed and unemployed people.

The RSZ launched PLFS in April 2017.

Based on PLFS, a quarterly bulletin is issued with estimates of labor force indicators, namely unemployment rate, Worker Population Ratio (WPR), Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR), distribution of workers by broad employment status and sector in which they operate. CWS.

The estimates of the unemployed in CWS provide an average picture of unemployment in a short period of seven days during the study period.

Under the CWS approach, a person is considered unemployed if he/she has not worked even one hour on any day of the week, but has looked for or been available for work for at least one hour on any day during that period .

According to CWS, the labor force is the number of people who work or are unemployed on average in the week prior to the date of the survey. LFPR is defined as the percentage of the population that is in the labor force.

The WPR (in percent) in CWS in urban areas for people aged 15 years and above was 46 percent in July-September 2023, compared to 44.5 percent in the same period a year ago.

In April-June it was 45.5 percent, in January-March 45.2 percent and in October-December 44.7 percent.

The current Quarterly Bulletin is the twentieth in the series for the September quarter.