The government on Monday said that the overall labour force participation rate (LFPR) in persons of age 15 years and above in India’s urban areas stood at 60.1 per cent in the July 2023-June 2024 period – a significant increase from 57.9 per cent in the July 2022-June 2023 period.

The LFPR for females of age 15 years above has increased from 37 per cent during July 2022–June 2023 to 41.7 per cent in July 2023–June 2024.

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Similarly, for males of the same age group, the LFPR increased from 78.5 per cent to 78.8 per cent during the same time span, as per the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation data.

The ministry said that the worker population ratio (WPR) for persons of age 15 years and above was 58.2 per cent during the current reporting period.

The WPR among females of age 15 years and above saw an increase from 35.9 per cent during July 2022–June 2023 to 40.3 per cent during July 2023–June 2024.

“The overall WPR among persons of the same age group has increased from 56.0 per cent during July 2022–June 2023 to 58.2 per cent during July 2023–June 2024,” the ministry said.

Moreover, the unemployment rate (UR) was 3.2 per cent for both males and females of age 15 years and above from July 2023 to June 2024. While the same for males has shown a marginal decline from 3.3 per cent during July 2022–June 2023 to 3.2 per cent during July 2023–June 2024, among females, it has increased from 2.9 per cent to 3.2 per cent during the same time span, the data showed.

In rural areas, LFPR increased from 50.7 per cent in 2017-18 to 63.7 per cent in 2023-24, while for urban areas, it increased from 47.6 per cent to 52 per cent.

LFPR for males in India increased from 75.8 per cent in 2017-18 to 78.8 per cent in 2023-24 and the corresponding increase in LFPR for females was from 23.3 per cent to 41.7 per cent, according to the data. LFPR is defined as the percentage of persons in the labour force (working or seeking or available for work) in the population and WPR is defined as the percentage of employed persons in the population.