What is the unemployment rate in rural India?
MoSPI · released 15 Oct 2026 · next due by 16 Nov 2026
| Period | Value (%) |
|---|---|
| Sep 2026 | 4.2 |
| Aug 2026 | 4.1 |
| Jul 2026 | 4.5 |
| Jun 2026 | 5.0 |
| May 2026 | 5.1 |
| Apr 2026 | 4.6 |
| Mar 2026 | 4.3 |
| Feb 2026 | 4.2 |
| Jan 2026 | 4.2 |
| Dec 2025 | 3.9 |
| Nov 2025 | 3.9 |
| Oct 2025 | 4.4 |
| Sep 2025 | 4.6 |
| Aug 2025 | 4.3 |
| Jul 2025 | 4.4 |
| Jun 2025 | 4.9 |
| May 2025 | 5.1 |
| Apr 2025 | 4.5 |
Use in your answer
Rural unemployment in India was 4.2% in Sep 2026 (persons aged 15 and above, current weekly status), compared with 4.1% 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
- Rural unemployment was 4.2% in September 2026 (persons 15+, current weekly status), against 6.9% in urban areas.
- It is lower for rural women (3.9%) than rural men (4.4%) in September 2026; in towns the pattern reverses, with urban women at 9.2%.
- Since April 2025 the rural rate has moved between 3.9% (November–December 2025) and 5.1% (May 2025 and May 2026), rising in the summer lean season.
Cite this
Cite a fixed version from every published version below.
Source and method
What exactly is measured
Unemployment rate for persons aged 15 and above in rural areas, 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.
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.
- 18 periods, latest Sep 2026: 4.2% · first snapshotArchived source
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Release notes (1)
- 4.2%Sep 2026, monthly bulletin
Get the data
Use it in Excel, Python or R
Excel (Data → From Web): https://india.tf/c/job-ruralur-047/data.csv
Python: pandas.read_csv("https://india.tf/c/job-ruralur-047/data.csv")
R: read.csv("https://india.tf/c/job-ruralur-047/data.csv")
All statistics: /api/index.json. Free to reuse with attribution (GODL-India).
