Written by Siddharth UpasaniNew Delhi | September 15, 2025 08:17 PM IST 4 min readThe increase for females and decrease among males cancelled each other out, leading to the rural youth unemployment rate staying steady at 13 per cent in August.Unemployment among the female youth rose for the third time in four months in August, according to data from the statistics ministry’s latest Period Labour Force Survey (PLFS), even as the all-India unemployment rate declined to a joint five-month low of 5.1 per cent.As per the PLFS data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on Monday, the unemployment rate for urban females in the 15-29 years age bracket rose to 25.7 per cent in August, more than 10 percentage points higher than the figure for young urban males. At 15.6 per cent, the August unemployment rate for young urban males was down from 17.1 per cent the previous month. This helped drag down the overall urban youth unemployment rate to 18 per cent from 19 per cent.The picture was similar in rural India: the female youth unemployment rate rose to 14.3 per cent, while that for males declined to 12.6 per cent. Both numbers stood at 13 per cent in July. The increase for females and decrease among males cancelled each other out, leading to the rural youth unemployment rate staying steady at 13 per cent in August.The rise in unemployment among the female youth came amid only a slight increase in their Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) to 21.4 per cent from 21.1 per cent and an unchanged Worker Population Ratio (WPR) of 17.6 per cent at a national level. For young males, the all-India LFPR declined to 60.7 per cent from 60.9 per cent, driven by a 70-basis-point (bps) drop in their rural LFPR. Young rural males also saw their WPR decline to 53.4 per cent from 53.7 per cent.The monthly jobs data is based on the Current Weekly Status (CWS) approach. Under this approach, the activity status of a person is measured for the seven days preceding the date of survey. The LFPR refers to the fraction of the population seeking work, while the WPR is the percentage of employed persons in the population.‘Labour market showing momentum’Commenting on the headline PLFS numbers, the statistics ministry said in a statement on Monday that the labour market showed “positive momentum” in August, underpinned by the overall unemployment rate falling to 5.1 per cent from 5.2 per cent in July, the male unemployment rate decreasing to a new monthly low, and the female LFPR rising to 33.7 per cent.However, compared to April – the earliest for which monthly labour market data is available – the latest numbers are not as favourable. While the August all-India unemployment rate for those aged 15 years and above, at 5.1 per cent, is the same as it was in April and male joblessness is 20 bps lower at 5 per cent, the female LFPR is lower than April’s 34.2 per cent. Even the female and overall WPR were higher in April, at 32.5 per cent and 52.8 per cent, respectively. In August, they stood at 32 per cent and 52.2 per cent.Story continues below this adTo be sure, MoSPI has previously cautioned that changes in the indicators did not necessarily reflect “secular trends” as they were to be expected in the monthly PLFS data on account of increased frequency of the survey and seasonal, academic, and labour market factors. Starting January, MoSPI revamped the design of the PLFS. As part of this revamp, each selected household is visited four times in four consecutive months. This ensures that three-fourths of first-stage sampling units, or FSUs, are matched between two consecutive months.As per the quarterly PLFS data released last month for April-June, youth unemployment in the second quarter of the current calendar year was the highest in Himachal Pradesh, at 29.6 per cent – more than double the all-India rate of 14.6 per cent for those in the 15-29 years age bracket and more than five-times higher than 5.4 per cent for those aged 15 years and above. Gujarat had the lowest youth unemployment rate of 5.6 per cent in April-June. The next quarterly PLFS data, for July-September, is scheduled to be released on November 17.Siddharth Upasani is a Deputy Associate Editor with The Indian Express. He reports primarily on data and the economy, looking for trends and changes in the former which paint a picture of the latter. Before The Indian Express, he worked at Moneycontrol and financial newswire Informist (previously called Cogencis). Outside of work, sports, fantasy football, and graphic novels keep him busy. ... Read More© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd