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What share of Indians are in the labour force?

55.5%
Sep 2026▼ 0.1 vs Aug 2026

MoSPI · released 15 Oct 2026 · next due by 16 Nov 2026

What share of Indians are in the labour force?
PeriodValue (%)
Sep 202655.5
Aug 202655.6
Jul 202655.4
Jun 202654.4
May 202654.4
Apr 202655.0
Mar 202655.4
Feb 202655.9
Jan 202655.9
Dec 202556.1
Nov 202555.8
Oct 202555.4
Sep 202555.3
Aug 202555.0
Jul 202554.9
Jun 202554.2
May 202554.8
Apr 202555.6

Use in your answer

India's labour force participation rate was 55.5% in Sep 2026 (persons aged 15 and above, current weekly status), compared with 55.6% in Aug 2026. Source: MoSPI, Periodic Labour Force Survey, Monthly Bulletin.

Cite as: Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), Monthly Bulletin (NSO, MoSPI), Sep 2026

What this shows

  • 55.5% of persons aged 15 and above were in the labour force in September 2026: 77.4% of men and 34.6% of women.
  • Participation is higher in villages (58.0%) than in towns (50.7%), because far more rural women work or seek work (38.9% against 25.9%).
  • Since April 2025 the rate has ranged from 54.2% (June 2025) to 56.1% (December 2025), dipping each May–June.

Cite this

Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), Monthly Bulletin (NSO, MoSPI), Sep 2026

Cite a fixed version from every published version below.

Source and method

Source
MoSPI, Periodic Labour Force Survey, Monthly Bulletin
Table
PLFS Monthly Bulletin, Statement 1, LFPR, persons 15 years and above, rural + urban, All India (CWS)
Released
15 Oct 2026
Retrieved
18 Oct 2026
Next due
by 16 Nov 2026
Processing
Copied as published.
Licence
GODL-India
What exactly is measured

Labour force participation rate: the share of persons aged 15 and above who are working or looking for work, rural and urban combined, in current weekly status (CWS), from the Periodic Labour Force Survey monthly bulletin. Monthly estimates began with the new survey design in April 2025; they are not comparable with older quarterly or annual PLFS figures.

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History: every published version

Each time the source changes this series we archive the full series as it stood, with an archived copy of the source, and never delete an old version. Each version has a permanent page you can cite. Recorded since 18 Oct 2026: 1 version.

No figure in this series has been revised since we began recording on 18 Oct 2026.

  1. 18 periods, latest Sep 2026: 55.5% · first snapshotArchived sourceea8eed06b2ec
Release notes (1)
  • 55.5%Sep 2026, monthly bulletin

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R: read.csv("https://india.tf/c/job-lfpr-049/data.csv")

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