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What share of women are in the labour force?

34.6%
Sep 2026▼ 0.2 vs Aug 2026

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

What share of women are in the labour force?
PeriodValue (%)
Sep 202634.6
Aug 202634.8
Jul 202634.4
Jun 202632.7
May 202632.8
Apr 202633.9
Mar 202634.4
Feb 202635.3
Jan 202635.1
Dec 202535.3
Nov 202535.1
Oct 202534.2
Sep 202534.1
Aug 202533.7
Jul 202533.3
Jun 202532.0
May 202533.2
Apr 202534.2

Use in your answer

The female labour force participation rate in India was 34.6% in Sep 2026 (women aged 15 and above, current weekly status), compared with 34.8% 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

  • 34.6% of women aged 15 and above were in the labour force in September 2026, against 77.4% of men.
  • Rural women participate far more than urban women: 38.9% against 25.9% in September 2026.
  • Participation dips every May–June (32.0% in June 2025, 32.7% in June 2026) and recovers from July, so compare the same month across years.

The latest figure, as people Sep 2026

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, female 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

Share of women 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 usual-status 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: 34.6% · first snapshotArchived source6d14de75bc65
Release notes (1)
  • 34.6%Sep 2026, monthly bulletin

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R: read.csv("https://india.tf/c/soc-flfpr-014/data.csv")

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