Female labour force participation rises to 24%; unemployment declines below 9%: Survey

The position of women in the urban job market improved further in the second quarter of FY24, with the female labour force participation rate rising to 24% compared with 23.2% in the previous quarter and 21.7% in Q2FY23, showed government data released on Wednesday.

The unemployment rate, although higher than men, declined below the 9% mark in Q2FY24 for the first time in over three years, according to the Periodic. Female urban unemployment fell to 8.6% in Q2FY24 compared with 9.1% in the previous quarter.


The overall unemployment rate remained unchanged from the previous quarter at 6.6%, as the male unemployment rate rose to 6% from 5.9% in the previous quarter.

The Indian economy is likely to have slowed down in the second quarter, growing 6.7% according to the median of an ET poll. The economy accelerated 7.8% in the first quarter of FY24.

While female unemployment has declined, the quality of jobs has not improved. An ET analysis shows that the share of women in regular-wage jobs reduced further in July-September period.

The share of women in regular-wage work declined at a faster pace than the one witnessed in the last year to 52.8% from 54% in the previous quarter.

Instead, the share of women in casual work rose to 6.9% and in the self-employed category to 40.3%.

The share of women was 39.2% in Q1FY24. The rise in the self-employed category was owing to a rise in the share of household helpers to 12.7% from 11.9% in the previous quarter.

The share of men in the self-employed category also rose in urban areas at the expense of regular wage and salaried workers. Of the 22 states covered by PLFS data, eight had a double-digit female unemployment rate.

Among the larger states, Assam had the highest rate of female unemployment at 17.9%, followed by Kerala at 14.8% and Rajasthan at 14.5%. Among males, only one state had double-digit unemployment. Rajasthan had the highest unemployment rate among the larger states.