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'Unemployment rate dips to 7.2% in July-Sept 2022'

Urban unemployment rate was 20.9% in Q1 2020 when the 1st wave of pandemic hit the country

New Delhi: Urban unemployment rate, in current weekly status (CWS), for all ages stood at 7.2 per cent in the second quarter of the current fiscal, lower than 9.8 per cent recorded in corresponding quarter last fiscal and 7.6 per cent in the April-June period of the current fiscal.

Urban unemployment rate was 20.9 per cent in the April-June 2020 period when the first wave of the pandemic hit hard on the country.

The latest available results of the quarterly Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), conducted by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MoSPI), also showed that 18.5 per cent of urban youth in the 15-29 years age group remained unemployed during the July-September period of the current fiscal.

The rate was lower than 22.5 per cent compared with the year-ago period and 18.9 per cent in the April-June period of the current fiscal.

As per the PLFS yardsticks, the activity status of a person determined on the basis of reference period of last seven days preceding the date of survey is known as the current weekly status (CWS) of the person. Unemployment rate is defined as the percentage of the unemployed persons in the labour force.

According to Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), which provides more frequent insights into the employment-unemployment scenario, urban joblessness rate was 8.22 per cent in July, 9.57 per cent in August and 7.7 per cent in September, 2022.

During the July-September 2022 period, unemployment for urban males for all ages was 6.6 per cent. It was 9.5 per cent for their female counterparts. As per the latest quarterly PLFS report, the unemployment rate was the highest at 24.7 per cent for urban females in the 15-29 age group.

The Labour force participation rate, which is defined as the percentage of population in the labour force for all age groups during the July-September 2022 period was 37.6 per cent, higher than 37 per cent in the corresponding period last year. In April-June 2022 period, LFPR was 37.2 per cent.

Worker population ratio (WPR), defined as the percentage of workers in the population, stood at 34.9 per cent during the July-September quarter of the current fiscal for all ages, higher than 33.4 per cent a year ago. It was 34.4 per cent in the April-June period of the current fiscal.

The quarterly PLFS, which is limited to urban areas, is different from the annual PLFS report. Annual PLFS covers both urban and rural areas and gives estimates of labour force indicators both in CWS and usual status (US) method. The US method records only those persons as unemployed who had no gainful work for a major time during 365 days preceding the date of survey and were seeking or available for work.

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