The unemployment rate in the country has decreased slightly to 3.1% in 2025. This figure was 3.2% in 2024, which means there has definitely been a slight improvement. This information has been revealed in the government’s Periodic Labor Force Survey (PLFS) 2025, which has been released by the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation. The report shows that the country is gradually improving in terms of employment and this improvement has been seen in almost every sector and in both men and women. The unemployment rate for men decreased from 3.3% to 3.1%, while the unemployment rate for women remained stable at 3.1%.
Situation is much better in villages
If we talk about rural and urban areas, the situation in villages looks better. The rural unemployment rate decreased from 2.5% to 2.4%, which shows that the situation of people getting work in villages is getting stronger. The special thing is that the unemployment rate of women in villages was only 2.1%, which is less than that of men (2.6%). The unemployment rate in cities is high, at 4.2% for men and 6.4% for women.
Agriculture is still the biggest employment sector
There has also been a change in the type of employment. The share of self-employed has declined slightly, from 57.5% in 2024 to 56.2% in 2025. But the good thing is that there has been an increase in regular salaried jobs, which increased from 22.4% to 23.6%. This means that people are getting more permanent jobs. Whereas the daily wages remain around 20% only. Sectorally, agriculture is still the largest employer, but there has been a slight decline, from 44.8% to 43%. Apart from this, employment in manufacturing (factories) has increased and there has also been good growth in the service sector (like hotels, transport, other services). A slight decline was seen in the construction sector.
Earnings of men and women also increased
There has also been improvement in terms of earnings. The average earnings of men in salaried jobs increased by about 5.8% to ₹24,217, while the average earnings of women increased by 7.2% to ₹18,353. There has also been a good increase in the income of self-employed people and women. However, among daily wage laborers, the earnings of men remained almost stable, while the earnings of women increased slightly. Talking about participation in education and work, the level of education of people is higher in cities, whereas it is slightly lower in villages. In villages, work participation of men was 80.5% and that of women was 45.9%, which is same as last year.
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