Jobless rate declines to record 3.1% in 2023

India's unemployment rate declined to its lowest level of 3.1% in 2023 from 3.6% in the previous year. In contrast, female labour force participation crossed the 40% mark for the first time, according to government data released Monday.

The decline in unemployment corresponds with India recording a stellar growth during the year.

A significant reason for the drop in unemployment rate was decline in urban unemployment. Urban unemployment declined to 5.2% in 2023 compared with 5.9% in the previous year. Rural unemployment was down 40 bps to 2.4% from 2.8% earlier.


The male-female gap in unemployment increased according to annual periodic labour force data, as female unemployment declined slower than male unemployment.

Despite female labour force participation rising to 41.3% in 2023 from 33.9% earlier, unemployment only came down to 3% from 3.3% earlier. In contrast, male unemployment declined to 3. 2% from 3.7% in urban areas.

In both rural and urban areas, the decline in female unemployment was lower than the decline in male unemployment.

Female labour force participation in urban areas reached 27.2% for the first time.

However, even as the ratio of women willing to join the workforce rises, their participation in the economy is declining.

The ratio of female workers to male workers working as legislators, senior officials and managers reduced to 14.4% in 2023 from 19% earlier. The decline was much starker in urban areas than in rural areas. The ratio of women working as legislators, senior official and managers went down 4.8 percentage points in urban areas to 13.8% within a year, compared with 4.1 percentage point decline to 15.4%.

However, the ratio of women working as professional and technical workers was up during this period to 49.4% from 46.5%.

According to data, more women with advanced degrees were also able to find work compared with men.