News Excerpt:
The overall urban unemployment rate, which had declined to 6.5% in the third quarter from 6.6% in Q2, increased once again to 6.7% in the last quarter of the financial year 2024, according to the latest quarterly Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data.
More about Labour force survey data:
- The rise in the unemployment rate compared with the previous quarter can be attributed to a relative slowing down of activity in the last quarter of the year.
- This is mainly due to layoffs in certain segments like IT, telecom, start-ups, etc, in white-collar jobs.
- For blue-collar workers, people returned to villages to aid in the preparation of harvests. Also, construction slowed down with high inventory levels
- The Indian economy is likely to grow 7.6% in FY24. It registered 8.2% growth in the first three quarters of the year.
Women join work
- The Female Labour Force Participation Rate in urban areas rose to a high of 25.6% during the same period, up by 0.6 percentage points in Q4 from the previous quarter.
- According to the survey released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI),
- The female labour force participation in urban areas stood at 23.2% in Q1, FY24, 24% in Q2, FY24, and 25% in Q3, FY24.
- During Q4, FY23, female labour force participation in urban areas stood at 22.7%.
Working population ratio:
- Meanwhile, during Q4FY24, the working population ratio (WPR) working people as a proportion of total population in urban areas increased to 46.9%,
- It comprises 69.8% (males) and 23.4% (females).
- The WPR in the urban areas stood at 45.2% in Q4, FY23,
- 45.5% in Q1, FY24
- 46% in Q2, FY24
- 46.6% in Q3, FY24.
- The latest data released by MoSPI applies to the urban working population over 15 years old.
- In contrast to the WPR, the labour force participation figure refers to those in work as a percentage of the working age population.
- Interestingly, while the male unemployment rate in urban areas has risen slightly in the last 12 months,
- The female unemployment rate witnessed a gradual fall during the same period.
- The unemployment rate among males in urban areas stood at:
- 6% during Q4, FY23,
- 5.9% in Q1, FY24,
- 6% in Q2, FY24,
- 5.8% in Q3, FY24
- 6.1% in Q4, FY24,
- Unemployment rates among women in urban areas stood at 9.2%, 9.1%, 8.6%, 8.6% and 8.5%, respectively, during the above mentioned quarters.
State wise data of Unemployment:
- Twelve of 22 states had a higher unemployment rate than the national average.
- Jammu and Kashmir had the highest unemployment rate at 11%, followed by Kerala at 10.7% and Rajasthan at 9.6%.
- The highest rise in the unemployment rate was witnessed by Punjab,
- where unemployment rose 1.3 percentage points to 7.7% from 6.4% in the previous quarter.
- Himachal Pradesh, on the other hand, witnessed a 3.2 percentage point drop in unemployment to 9.1% in Q4FY24.
- Delhi had the lowest unemployment rate at 1.8%, followed by Karnataka at 4.1%--home to India’s tech capital Bengaluru.
- In terms of female unemployment, 11 of 22 states had double-digit unemployment.
- Delhi and Haryana had the lowest unemployment rate for women in urban areas.
