PLFS Bulletin: LFPR Climbs to 55.5% in July-September 2026

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) put out the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) Quarterly Bulletin for the quarter July-September 2026 on 10 November 2026. The National Statistical Office runs this survey, and the new bulletin is the sixth in the series that reports rural and urban India together under the Current Weekly Status framework.

Participation climbs in village and city alike

The Labour Force Participation Rate for people aged 15 years and above moved up to 55.5%, against 54.6% in April-June 2026. Rural participation improved to 58.1% from 56.9%, and the urban figure edged up to 50.4% from 50.2%. Women recorded the sharpest gain, with female participation reaching 34.7% from 33.2%, while participation among urban men touched 77.3%.

Headline rates for persons aged 15 years and above

More workers, fewer jobless

The Worker Population Ratio rose to 52.7% from 51.7%. In villages it gained to 55.6% from 54.2%, in cities it stayed nearly flat at 46.9%, and for women it jumped to 32.8% from 31.3%. Joblessness eased across the country to 5.1% from 5.4%. Rural unemployment slid to 4.3% from 4.8%, while the urban rate held around 6.8%.

Who works where

• Self-employment widened to 62.7% of rural workers from 61.4% a quarter earlier.
• Regular wage or salaried work in cities rose to 49.6% from 49.3%.
• Casual labour shrank in both areas, to 21.7% in rural India and 10.7% in urban India.
• Farming took a bigger share of rural work at 56.7%, up from 52.9%, with the secondary sector at 21.9% and the tertiary sector at 21.4%.

Drawing on population projections of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, MoSPI estimated that 57.9 crore people aged 15 years and above held work during the quarter, of whom 40.5 crore were men and 17.4 crore were women. Measured against the same quarter a year earlier, overall participation was higher by 0.4 percentage points, rising from 55.1% in July-September 2025.