Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) Quarterly Bulletin: October-December 2025

FOCUS

The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) was launched by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation and the National Statistics Office (MoSPI), Government of India, in 2017. The survey provides estimates for indicators such as the labour force participation rate (LFPR), the worker population ratio (WPR), and includes data on the employment status of workers and the sector (agriculture, secondary or tertiary) they work in. It also supplies data on the unemployment rate (UR) in the country.

As of 2024, the PLFS only collected data from urban areas as per the current weekly status (CWS), that is, “on the basis of a reference period of last seven days preceding the date of survey.” Beginning in 2025, data for key indicators like the LFPR, WPR and UR were collected from both rural and urban areas in the CWS format. Additionally, MoSPI introduced monthly reports in addition to the quarterly and annual bulletins released earlier. Starting from 2025, the PLFS also renames the previously existing category of “unpaid helpers in household enterprise” to “contributing family members”. 

This quarterly bulletin – covering the period of October to December 2025 – is the 28th publication in the PLFS series. The survey for this quarter covered 561,108 individuals from 133,899 households in 6,188 and 5,059 rural and urban first stage units (FSUs) across the country. The sample included 280,341 men and 280,753 women.

The 56-page report is divided into four broad sections: Introduction (Section 1); Key Results (Section 2); Sampling Design and Sample Size (Section 3); and Reliability of the estimates (Section 4). The report also contains three appendices.

    FACTOIDS

  1. The ‘labour force’ is the share of the population “which supplies or offers to supply labour for pursuing economic activities” and thus includes both employed and unemployed people. The labour force participation rate (LFPR) calculates the share of labour force within a population. In October-December 2025, the all-India LFPR for all ages was 42.2 per cent (as per current weekly status) – 57.8 per cent among men and 26.8 per cent among women.

  2. The LFPR for all ages in rural areas was 43.2 – 57.3 per cent among men and 29.6 per cent among women. The urban LFPR was 40 per cent – 59 per cent among men and 20.4 per cent among women.

  3. In October-December 2025, the lowest rural + urban LFPR was recorded in Bihar (31.5 per cent) and the highest in Himachal Pradesh (54.3 per cent). Among women, the lowest LFPR was recorded in Delhi (10.3 per cent) and the highest in Himachal Pradesh (46.8 per cent). Whereas among men, Bihar (47.3 per cent) recorded the lowest LFPR and West Bengal (64.4 per cent) recorded the highest LFPR.

  4. The worker population ratio (WPR) is “the percentage of workers in a population” where worker refers to anyone who has worked at least an hour in the seven days preceding the survey. The country-wide rural + urban WPR in the final quarter of 2025 for people aged 15 years and above was 53.1 per cent – 55.1 per cent among men and 25.5 per cent among women.

  5. Among those aged 15 years and above, the lowest rural + urban WPR was recorded in Delhi (40.9 per cent) and the highest was recorded in Himachal Pradesh (63.4 per cent). Among women, the lowest WPR was recorded in Delhi (12.4 per cent), and the highest in Himachal Pradesh (54.3 per cent). Among men, the lowest WPR was recorded in Uttarakhand (66 per cent) and the highest in Gujarat (80.6 per cent).

  6. The PLFS also outlines the percentage of workers across three categories: self-employed, regular wage/salaried employees and casual labour. In October-December 2025, of workers aged 15 years and above in rural areas, 63.2 per cent were self-employed and 22.1 per cent were engaged in casual labour. Only 14.8 per cent workers were salaried or earned regular wages.

  7. In urban areas, 49.1 per cent workers (aged 15 years and above) earned regular wages or salaries and 39.7 per cent were self-employed. Whereas only 11.2 per cent engaged in casual labour.

  8. Overall figures (rural + urban) showed that a higher percentage of women (65.1 per cent) were self-employed than men (52.1 per cent). Conversely, more men (27 per cent) earned regular wages and salaries compared to women (20.4 per cent).

  9. The report also gives data on the distribution of workers across agricultural, secondary (mining and quarrying among others), and tertiary sectors. In this quarter, of the total workers aged 15 years and above, 43.2 per cent (58.5 per cent rural and 6.7 per cent urban) worked in the agriculture sector. Around 24 per cent (20.9 per cent in rural and 31.5 per cent in urban) were engaged in the secondary sector. And 32.8 per cent (20.6 per cent in rural and 61.9 per cent in urban) worked in the tertiary sector.

  10. Under current weekly status, a person is considered unemployed if they did not work for even one hour during the reference week but actively sought or were available for work. The unemployment rate (UR) is the “percentage of unemployed persons in the labour force.” The UR in the last quarter of 2025 among workers aged 15 years and above was 4.8 per cent (4 per cent in rural areas compared to 6.7 per cent in urban areas).

  11. The UR among women in urban areas (9 per cent) was higher than that among men (5.9 per cent). Conversely, the UR among women in rural areas (3.6 per cent) was lower than that among men (4.2 per cent). The UR among workers in the age group 15-29 years was also considerably higher – 12.6 per cent in rural areas and 18 per cent in urban areas.

  12. The rural + urban unemployment rate among those aged 15 years and above in the October to December 2025 quarter was lowest in Gujarat (2.3 per cent) and highest in Uttarakhand (8.5 per cent). Among women it was lowest in Gujarat (1.7 per cent) and highest in Kerala (11.4 per cent). Among men the UR was lowest in Karnataka (2.4 per cent) and highest in Uttarakhand (10 per cent).


    Focus and Factoids by Abhirup Roy.

AUTHOR

National Statistics Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India, New Delhi

COPYRIGHT

National Statistics Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India, New Delhi

PUBLICATION DATE

10 Feb, 2026

TAGS

#periodic-labour-force-survey #worker-population-ratio #unemployment-rate #unemployment #labour-force-participation-rate

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