India’s employment rises in August as LFPR and WPR improve: Govt data

India registered an increase in both the overall Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) and Worker Population Ratio (WPR) in August this year over the same month of the previous year, reflecting a year-on-year rise in employment, figures released by the National Statistics Office showed on Tuesday. The overall LFPR increased by 0.6 percentage points, from 55 per cent in August, 2025, to 55.6 per cent in August this year. Sequentially also, the overall LFPR was higher than the corresponding figure of 55.4 per cent in July.

A similar trend has also been observed in rural areas, where the LFPR for persons aged 15 years and above increased to 58.2 per cent in August, 2026, from 58.0 per cent in July, 2026. In urban areas, LFPR remained constant at 50.4 per cent in August, 2026 as compared to the previous month. LFPR in rural areas stood at 58.2 per cent in August, 2026, registering an increase of 1.2 percentage points over August 2025, while overall female LFPR was recorded at 34.8 per cent during the month, which was 1.1 percentage points higher than the level recorded in August last year.

Overall WPR, for persons aged 15 years and above, increased to 52.8 per cent in August, the highest level recorded since March this year. Rural WPR increased by 1.3 percentage points year-on-year to 55.8 per cent in August. Gender-wise figures show that the overall female LFPR experienced a moderate increase from 34.4 per cent in July, 2026 to 34.8 per cent in August, 2026 mainly contributed by rural female LFPR which increased to 39.4 per cent during the current month from 38.8 per cent recorded in the previous month.

During the same period, female LFPR in urban areas was broadly stable at 25.4 per cent, compared to 25.3 per cent observed in July, 2026. Overall unemployment rate (UR), for persons aged 15 years and above, remained stable at 5.0 per cent in August. Rural UR declined to 4.1 per cent during the month, the lowest level recorded since January 2026. The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) conducted by NSO is the primary source of data on activity participation and employment and unemployment conditions of the population. The PLFS survey methodology has been modified from January this year to provide monthly and quarterly estimates of labour force indicators for the country.

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