Urban joblessness descended to 8.4% in July-September 2019

NEW DELHI: Joblessness in urban areas declined from 8.9 per cent in June 2019 to 8.4 per cent in September 2019. This data was released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) in the trimestral bulletin of the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS).

Unemployment in urban areas in the group aged 15–29 years was 20.6 per cent in 2019. Among the category of states, the unemployment rates were higher than the national average in the states of Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana. The rate of urban unemployment in the quarter which ended on September 30, 2018, was 9.7 per cent. Urban joblessness further dropped in the three quarters spanning January till September 2019.

Unemployment rate in urban areas in males, inclusive of transgender, was 8 per cent. On the other hand, the unemployment rate in females was 9.7 per cent. Based on the broad status of livelihood in urban areas, the highest were regular earning employees at 49.6 per cent, even though their share dropped slightly from the previous two trimestral among those aged 15 years and above. The other two big categories in urban employment are self-employed and own account workers.