NEW DELHI: The urban unemployment rate for those aged 15 years and above was stagnant in October-December 2022 at 7.2% as compared with the previous quarter, the periodic labour force survey (PLFS) by the National Statistical office (NSO) showed. For the last four quarters, the unemployment rate in urban areas was on a steady decline. The urban unemployment rate in October-December quarter of 2021-22 was at 8.7%.
While the unemployment rate among male population declined marginally to 6.5% from 6.6% on a quarterly basis, it rose to 9.6% from 9.4% among women during the October-December quarter. Meanwhile, the labour force participation rate has been steadily increasing and in the October-December period, it stood at 48.2% as compared with 47.9% in the previous quarter.
A year ago, the labour force participation rate was 47.3%.Labour force participation rate is defined as the percentage of persons in the population who either are working or seeking or are available for work. One of the heartening developments is the steady growth in women’s participation in the labour force from 20.2% in October-December 2021 to 22.3% in the same quarter in 2022.
Meanwhile, as per the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI), during September 2017 to December 2022, 6.18 crore new people subscribed to the employee provident fund (EPF) scheme. It is to be noted that in the month of December, EPFO added 14.93 lakh net members in the month of December 2022.