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What share of the urban labour force is unemployed?

6.7%
Apr–Jun 2026▲ 0.1 vs Jan–Mar 2026

MoSPI · released 10 Aug 2026 · next due by 10 Nov 2026

What share of the urban labour force is unemployed?
PeriodValue (%)
Apr–Jun 20266.7
Jan–Mar 20266.6
Oct–Dec 20256.7
Jul–Sep 20256.9
Apr–Jun 20256.8

Use in your answer

Urban unemployment in India was 6.7% in Apr–Jun 2026 (persons aged 15 and above, current weekly status), compared with 6.6% in Jan–Mar 2026. Source: MoSPI, Periodic Labour Force Survey, Quarterly Bulletin.

Cite as: Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), Quarterly Bulletin (NSO, MoSPI), Apr–Jun 2026

What this shows

  • Urban unemployment was 6.7% in April–June 2026, within a narrow 6.6–6.9% range across the five quarters of the new survey design.
  • Urban women face much higher unemployment than urban men: 8.7% against 6.1% in April–June 2026.
  • Youth unemployment is far higher: 18.2% for urban persons aged 15–29 in April–June 2026.

Cite this

Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), Quarterly Bulletin (NSO, MoSPI), Apr–Jun 2026

Cite a fixed version from every published version below.

Source and method

Source
MoSPI, Periodic Labour Force Survey, Quarterly Bulletin
Table
PLFS quarterly, CWS, urban, persons 15+, All India
Released
10 Aug 2026
Retrieved
18 Oct 2026
Next due
by 10 Nov 2026
Processing
Copied as published.
Licence
GODL-India
What exactly is measured

Unemployment rate in urban areas for persons aged 15 and above, current weekly status (CWS), from the Periodic Labour Force Survey quarterly bulletin. PLFS changed its survey design in January 2025; only quarters on the new design, from April–June 2025, are shown.

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Urban unemployment by state

Unemployment rate in urban areas, persons aged 15 and above, current weekly status. Source: MoSPI, Periodic Labour Force Survey, Quarterly Bulletin, Apr–Jun 2026.

Where

JK14.9LA–PB7.3HP11.0UK9.2SK–AR–RJ11.0CH–HR4.6DL4.0UP10.0BR8.5WB4.3AS6.6NL–GJ3.9MP7.5CG12.5JH8.3ML–MN–DH–MH5.6TS7.3OD8.1TR–MZ–GA–KA4.0AP7.7LD–KL9.2TN5.5PY–AN–
3.9% to 14.9% in five equal bands; dashed tiles are not reported. India: 6.7%. Tiles show position, not borders.

Ranked

Ranked lowest first · Apr–Jun 2026 · India 6.7%

  1. 1Gujarat3.9
  2. 2Delhi4.0
  3. 3Karnataka4.0
  4. 4West Bengal4.3
  5. 5Haryana4.6
  6. 6Tamil Nadu5.5
  7. 7Maharashtra5.6
  8. 8Assam6.6
  9. 9Punjab7.3
  10. 10Telangana7.3
  11. 11Madhya Pradesh7.5
  12. 12Andhra Pradesh7.7
  13. 13Odisha8.1
  14. 14Jharkhand8.3
  15. 15Bihar8.5
  16. 16Kerala9.2
  17. 17Uttarakhand9.2
  18. 18Uttar Pradesh10.0
  19. 19Himachal Pradesh11.0
  20. 20Rajasthan11.0
  21. 21Chhattisgarh12.5
  22. 22Jammu & Kashmir14.9

How are the states spread?

6 of 22 states fall between 4% and 6%. Each column counts the states in one band of urban unemployment; the dashed line is the all-India figure.

Hover a column for the states in it. Bands are equal widths of the state figures, Apr–Jun 2026.

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. 5 periods, latest Apr–Jun 2026: 6.7% · first snapshotArchived source1cb79751e260
Release notes (1)
  • 6.7%Apr–Jun 2026, quarterly bulletin

Get the data

Use it in Excel, Python or R

Excel (Data → From Web): https://india.tf/c/soc-plfs-003/data.csv

Python: pandas.read_csv("https://india.tf/c/soc-plfs-003/data.csv")

R: read.csv("https://india.tf/c/soc-plfs-003/data.csv")

All statistics: /api/index.json. Free to reuse with attribution (GODL-India).