Unemployment lowest in South 24 Parganas, Araria districts at 0.9% - MoSPI
This story was originally published at 18:57 IST on 18 September 2026
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NEW DELHI – South 24 Parganas in West Bengal and Araria in Bihar have reported the lowest unemployment rate of 0.9%, followed by Ahmedabad in Gujarat with an unemployment rate of 1.1%, according to district-level key labour market data released by the statistics ministry. Only 7.2% of districts in India have unemployment rate of below 0.5%, while 14.9% of districts have an unemployment rate of more than 5.5%, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation said in a release Friday.
The unemployment rate in about 77.8% of districts in India for people aged 15 and above is in the range of 0.5-5.5%, the data showed. More than 98% of districts have recorded 40-80% of both labour force participation rate and worker population ratio. In a first, the National Statistics Office has released district-level estimates under the Periodic Labour Force Survey, based on the revised sampling design adopted from January 2025, according to the ministry.
Surat in Gujarat and Araria were the top two districts with highest labour force participation ratio and worker population ratio, the data showed. While "Darbhanga in Bihar recorded the lowest levels of LFPR and WPR," the ministry said.
Around 57.8% of districts recorded female labour force participation rate of 40% or above. Sri Satya Sai district in Andhra Pradesh and Tinsukia district in Assam were the top two districts with the highest female labour force participation rate and worker population ratio, it added.
In 2025, India's unemployment rate for persons aged 15 years and above fell to 3.1% from 3.2% in 2024, as per the data released in March. The unemployment rate remained steady at 3.1% for females at an all-India level, and fell by 20 basis points for males to 3.1% last year. The labour force participation rate fell to 59.3% in 2025 from 59.6% in 2024 and the overall female labour force participation rate fell to 40.0% from 40.3% a year ago. The worker population ratio, which is the percentage of employed persons in the population, fell to a three-year low of 57.4% in 2025 from 57.7% in 2024. End
Reported by Shweta
Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj
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