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Statistics
India's unemployment rate is close to other lower-middle-income countries'
The PLFS monthly bulletins average 5.2% from January to August 2026, on the current weekly status measure. On the ILO's modelled estimates, which put every country on one definition, India's rate was 4.2% in 2025, against 4.5% for lower-middle-income countries and 4.9% for middle-income countries as a whole (World Bank, World Development Indicators, SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS). The headline rate is low because most Indian workers are self-employed or casual and count as employed however little they earn, and because people who have stopped looking for work drop out of the labour force.
What follows. The headline unemployment rate is a misleading benchmark for India because of the definition of 'employed'.
Unemployment rate, ages 15 and over
2004-2013 average none published; 2014-2026 average 4.3%; latest 5.2% in 2026. Source, method and every year.
One of 37 readings of the dataset, rebuilt whenever the data are refreshed. Data vintage 2026-10-10. Cite as Raman, V.S., Some Perspective: India's Political Economy, 2004-2026, someperspective.info, CC BY 4.0.