PLFS September 2026: Urban LFPR Rises to 50.7 Per Cent

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation issued the Periodic Labour Force Survey monthly bulletin for September 2026 on 15 October 2026. It is the eighteenth bulletin in the series, which began after the survey was redesigned in January 2025 to yield monthly and quarterly estimates. The survey is run by the National Statistical Office and the figures follow the Current Weekly Status approach for persons aged 15 years and above.

Labour force participation

Overall LFPR stood at 55.5 per cent, broadly unchanged from the previous month but 0.2 percentage points above September 2025. The urban rate climbed to 50.7 per cent from 50.4 per cent a month earlier. In rural areas the rate was 58 per cent.

Women in the labour force

Overall female LFPR was 34.6 per cent, up 0.5 percentage points over the year. The urban female rate rose from 25.4 per cent to 25.9 per cent, its highest since October 2025. Rural female LFPR was 38.9 per cent, a gain of a full percentage point over the year.

Who is actually at work

The Worker Population Ratio stayed near 52.7 per cent, 0.3 percentage points higher than a year earlier. Urban WPR reached 47.2 per cent, the best since October 2025, with the urban male ratio moving to 71 per cent and the urban female ratio to 23.5 per cent. At the all-India level male WPR was 73.6 per cent and female WPR 32.8 per cent.

Unemployment

The unemployment rate held at 5 per cent, 0.2 percentage points below September 2025. Rural UR was 4.2 per cent and urban UR 6.9 per cent. Rural female UR fell to 3.9 per cent, the lowest recorded in 2026, while urban female UR rose to 9.2 per cent. Male UR was steady at 4.9 per cent.

How big the survey was

The monthly estimates rest on information gathered from 3,70,513 persons in all, of whom 2,11,333 were in rural areas and 1,59,180 in urban areas. The bulletin is posted on the ministry's website.