Even as overall rate of urban unemployment has come down, Jammu & Kashmir along with Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Kerala have unemployment rate (UR) in double digit.

Meanwhile, Delhi has lowest rate of unemployment in the country.

Out of 22 States and Union Territories, 14 have higher UR than national average, while 8 has lower than that. According to quarterly Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), UR in urban areas among persons of age 15 years and above decreased to 6.4 per cent during July – September, 2024 as against from 6.6 per cent during July – September, 2023.

During this period, UR among males declined to 5.7 per cent from 6 per cent. In case of female down to 8.4 per cent from 8.6 per cent.

Unemployment rate (UR) is defined as the percentage of unemployed persons in the labour force. The estimates of unemployed in current weekly status (CWS) give an average picture of unemployment in a short period of 7 days during the survey period.

According to the CWS approach, a person was considered as unemployed in a week if he/she did not work even for 1 hour on any day during the reference week but sought or was available for work at least for 1 hour on any day during the reference week.

Deep dive into data revealed that Jammu & Kashmir recorded highest UR with 11.8 per cent, while Odisha ranks second with 10.6 per cent. Chhattisgarh is placed third at 10.4 per cent followed by Kerala at 10.1 per cent.

Although no explanation is given for UR at either at national level or State level, but is believed that though industrial activities are picking up in J&K, however it is yet to gather momentum and that is having impact on employment. Other states may have different reasons for unemployment starting with man-made to natural calamities beside others.

Labour Force Participation

Labour Force Participation rate in Current Weekly Status (CWS) in urban areas for people aged 15 years and above increased to 50.4 per cent in July-September from 49.3 per cent in the same quarter a year ago. The rate was 50.1 per cent in the April-June 2024.

Labour force refers to the part of the population, which supplies or offers to supply labour for pursuing economic activities for the production of goods and services and, therefore, includes both employed and unemployed persons.

The NSSO had launched PLFS in April 2017. On the basis of PLFS, a quarterly bulletin is brought out giving estimates of labour force indicators namely unemployment rate, worker population ratio (WPR), labour force participation rate (LFPR), distribution of workers by broad status in employment and industry of work in CWS.

Labour force, according to CWS, is the number of persons either employed or unemployed on average in a week preceding the date of the survey. LFPR is defined as the percentage of the population in the labour force.

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