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Youth unemployment has fallen from 17.8% to 9.9% since 2017-18
On MoSPI's usual-status series, unemployment among people aged 15-29 was 17.8% in 2017-18, the first PLFS year, 12.9% in 2020-21 and 9.9% in 2025. It has stayed about three times the all-age rate in every year. The PLFS series begins in 2017-18, so there is no comparable figure for the years before it.
What follows. Young people are about three times as likely to be unemployed as the workforce as a whole, and that ratio has not narrowed as the rate has fallen.
Youth unemployment rate, ages 15 to 29
2004-2013 average none published; 2014-2026 average 12.9%; latest 9.9% in 2025. Source, method and every year.
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.