New Delhi, Jan 15 (.) India’s labour market indicators showed continued improvement in December 2025, with labour force participation and workforce levels rising to their highest levels of the year, while the overall unemployment rate remained broadly stable.
The figures came as per the latest Monthly Bulletin of the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).
The overall Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) for persons aged 15 years and above increased to 56.1% in December 2025, up from 55.8% in November. This marked LFPR’s highest level in the year with continuing an upward trend observed since June 2025.
The rural LFPR rose to 59.0% from 58.6% in the previous month, while urban LFPR edged marginally lower to 50.2% from 50.4%.
Female participation in the labour force reached a yearly peak, with overall female LFPR rising to 35.3% in December from 35.1% in November. In rural areas, female LFPR climbed to 40.1% from 39.7%, while in urban areas it slipped slightly to 25.3% from 25.5%.
The Worker Population Ratio (WPR) also showed steady improvement. The overall WPR for persons aged 15 years and above rose to 53.4% in December 2025 from 53.2% in November, reaching its highest level of the year.
Among rural males, WPR increased to 76.0% from 75.4%, while urban male WPR declined marginally to 70.4% from 70.9%, taking the overall male WPR to 74.1%. Rural female WPR edged up to 38.6% from 38.4%, while urban female WPR remained around 23.0%, resulting in an overall female WPR of 33.6%.
The overall unemployment rate (UR) for persons aged 15 years and above remained largely stable at 4.8% in December 2025, compared with 4.7% in November. Rural unemployment continued to stay low and unchanged at 3.9%, while the urban UR increased marginally to 6.7% from 6.5% in the previous month.
Among gender-wise trends, rural male unemployment remained stable at 4.1% in December. Urban female unemployment, however, declined to 9.1% from 9.3% in November, easing from its yearly high of 9.7% recorded in October 2025.
The December 2025 PLFS Monthly Bulletin is the ninth in the current series and is based on data collected from 3,73,990 individuals across the country, including 2,13,216 persons in rural areas and 1,60,774 in urban areas.
. VK SAS PRS