After reaching a 1-year high, unemployment rate drops to 6.43% in September

The fall in the unemployment rate by 1.87 per cent is the result of an increase in labour participation in the rural and urban areas. Last month, employment sequentially fell by 2 million to 394.6 million in India.

“In September, the unemployment rate has fallen significantly with an increase in labour participation in both urban and rural areas,” CMIE managing director Mahesh Vyas told PTI over the phone on Saturday.

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The data showed a significant fall in unemployment, especially in rural areas. According to CMIE, the unemployment rate in the rural areas fell by 1.85 per cent in a month. It was 7.68 per cent in August and dropped to 5.84 per cent in September. Moreover, the unemployment rate had remained high above 7 per cent since February this year, except in July 2022. However, it was after this exception unemployment rate jumped to 8.3 per cent.

Showing a similar trend in the urban areas, the data revealed that the unemployment rate dropped to 7.70 per cent against 9.57 per cent in the previous month in cities.

Referring to the data, Mahesh Vyas said the addition of 8 million of labour in the economy indicates that it is doing well.

The data revealed that the unemployment rate was the highest in Rajasthan at 23.8 per cent in September, followed by Jammu and Kashmir at 23.2 per cent. Tripura stood at 17 per cent, and Haryana at 22.9 per cent. Jharkhand and Bihar recorded an unemployment rate of 12.2 per cent and 11.4 per cent.

Chattisgarh recorded the lowest unemployment rate in the country at 0.1 per cent in September. It was followed by Assam which stood at 0.4 per cent. Uttarakhand recorded 0.5 per cent of unemployment last month. MP recorded a 0.9 per cent of unemployment in September. Odisha stood at a 2.9 per cent of unemployment rate last month.

August marked a high rate of unemployment, mainly because of high rainfall that impacted sowing activities in rural India. However, the effect was seen in urban unemployment as well. In August, the rural unemployment rate stood at 7.7 per cent, and urban unemployment rate reached 9.6 per cent.

With inputs from PTI