Periodic Labour Force Survey Monthly Bulletin - June 2026
The Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation released its fifteenth Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) Monthly Bulletin for June 2026, providing key labor market indicators for India based on the Current Weekly Status approach. The survey methodology was modified from January 2025 to provide monthly and quarterly estimates, with this bulletin representing the latest in the series.
Overall labor market indicators remained largely stable in June 2026. The Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) for persons aged 15 years and above stood at 54.4%, unchanged from May 2026 and marginally higher than the 54.2% recorded in June 2025. Rural LFPR remained steady at 56.6%, while urban areas showed modest improvement with LFPR rising to 50.1% from 49.8% in the previous month.
Female labor force participation showed stability with overall female LFPR at 32.7% in June 2026 compared to 32.8% in May 2026. Year-over-year, female LFPR increased by 0.7 percentage points from 32.0% in June 2025. Rural female LFPR remained broadly stable at 36.6% against 36.7% in May, while urban female LFPR maintained the same level at 24.8%. Compared to June 2025, rural female LFPR showed significant improvement, rising by 1.4 percentage points from 35.2%, while urban female LFPR declined by 0.4 percentage points from 25.2%.
The Worker Population Ratio (WPR) remained unchanged at 51.4% in June 2026 compared to the previous month, representing a slight increase of 0.2 percentage points over June 2025. Rural WPR held steady at 53.8%, while urban WPR showed marginal improvement to 46.8% from 46.6% in May. Male WPR specifically increased from 72.5% in May to 72.9% in June, showing broad stability compared to June 2025 (72.8%).
The Unemployment Rate (UR) remained stable at 5.5% in June 2026 compared to both the previous month and the previous year (5.6%). Rural UR eased marginally from 5.1% to 5.0%, while urban UR increased slightly from 6.4% to 6.6%. Year-over-year, urban UR showed significant improvement, declining by 0.5 percentage points from 7.1% in June 2025. The survey noted that rural male UR, which had been rising continuously from February 2026 onwards, recorded a decline in June 2026 and remained below the level recorded in the corresponding month of the previous year.
The monthly estimates are based on information collected from a total of 372,852 persons surveyed nationwide, comprising 212,390 persons in rural areas and 160,462 persons in urban areas.