Subhechcha Ganguly 
According to PLFS data, the urban unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in 2022–23 (since 2018–19) for all quarters.According to data released on May 29, the National Statistical Office (NSO), which uses the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) to publish quarterly bulletins for urban areas, India’s urban unemployment rate for the quarter ending March 2023 was 6.8%, the lowest in at least five years.There were other strong quarters for urban jobs in 2022–2023 besides the March quarter. Since 2018–19, the urban unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in all quarters in 2022–23. This upward trend in employment was not caused by a decrease in job seekers.
The Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), which measures the percentage of persons who are employed or actively seeking employment, reached its highest level in 2022–23 (since 2018–19) for all quarters. This indicates that in 2022–2023, a record number of Indians living in metropolitan areas looked for and obtained employment. The urban bulletin series’ highest LFPR, 38.1%, was recorded in the March quarter.Of course, a portion of this could be explained by the fact that throughout the year, the proportion of unpaid family employees reached its highest level in five years. It was 6.1% for the March quarter.
Similar trends may be seen in the annual numbers for 2021–22, which were issued on February 24 this year. The share of unpaid family workers increased even though the unemployment rate (4.1%) had dropped to its lowest point since 2017–18, the first year for which annual PLFS data are available. It increased by 4.2 percentage points from 2018–19, the final year the pandemic had no effect on the labour market, to 17.5% in 2021–22. The PLFS runs on a July-June calendar each year.
