Urban unemployment rate in April-June 2022 eased to 7.6%, shows PLFS data

Unemployment rate in urban areas eased to 7.6% in April-June 2022 from 8.2% in the trailing quarter, as per the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) released on Wednesday. Urban unemployment was 12.6% in the June quarter of 2021.

As per the latest PLFS, urban unemployment in the age group 15-29 years was %. The fieldwork of PLFS was suspended from March 18, 2020 due to Covid-19 pandemic.

“For about 95.40% of the revisit schedules for the period April-June, 2022, information was collected over the telephone,” the ministry of statistics and programme implementation said.


The PLFS is based on the current weekly status (CWS) approach in which a person is considered unemployed in a week if he/she did not work even for one hour but sought or was available for work at least for one hour during the week.

Unemployment rate among females (aged 15 years and above) in urban areas declined to 9.5% in April-June, 2022 from 14.3% a year ago. It was 10.1% in January-March, 2022.

Among males, the unemployment rate in urban areas dipped to 7.1% in April-June 2022 compared to 12.2% a year ago. It was 7.7% in January-March 2022.

Labour force participation rate in CWS in urban areas for persons aged 15 years and above increased to 47.5% in the April-June quarter of 2022, from 46.8% in the same period a year ago and 47.3% in January-March 2022.