India’s labour market indicators improved in July 2026, with the PLFS July 2026 bulletin showing higher Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) and Worker Population Ratio (WPR), while the overall Unemployment Rate (UR) declined. The data covers persons aged 15 years and above under the Current Weekly Status (CWS) approach.
PLFS July 2026 shows stronger labour participation
Overall LFPR increased to 55.4% in July 2026 from 54.4% in June 2026. Rural LFPR rose by 1.4 percentage points to 58.0%, while urban LFPR increased from 50.1% to 50.4%. Compared with July 2025, overall LFPR rose by 0.5 percentage point, while rural LFPR increased by 1.1 percentage points and urban LFPR declined by 0.3 percentage point.
Female labour force participation also strengthened. Overall female LFPR rose from 32.7% in June 2026 to 34.4% in July 2026. Rural female LFPR increased from 36.6% to 38.8%, while urban female LFPR rose from 24.8% to 25.3%. On a year-on-year basis, overall female LFPR increased by 1.1 percentage points and rural female LFPR rose by 1.9 percentage points, while urban female LFPR declined by 0.5 percentage point.
The overall WPR increased to 52.5% in July 2026 from 51.4% in June 2026, marking its first increase since February 2026. Rural WPR rose to 55.4%, up 1.6 percentage points from June and 1.0 percentage point from July 2025. Urban WPR increased marginally to 47.0% from 46.8%. Rural female WPR increased by 2.5 percentage points to 37.2%, while urban female WPR rose from 22.7% to 23.1%.
Unemployment also declined. Overall UR fell to 5.1% in July 2026 from 5.5% in June, while rural UR declined to 4.5% from 5.0%. Urban UR remained broadly stable at 6.7%, compared with 6.6% in June. Overall male UR fell from 5.3% to 5.0%, while rural male UR declined from 4.9% to 4.6% and urban male UR fell to 5.9% from 6.6% a year earlier. Urban female UR rose to 8.8% from 8.4% in June and remained broadly stable against 8.7% in July 2025.
