Unemployment rate dips in first quarter of 2022: Survey

The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) has reported that the unemployment rate for urban areas has decreased to 8.2% in January-March 2022 from 8.7% in the previous quarter (October-December 2021) and 9.3% in the same quarter in 2021. The survey report, released here on Thursday, defines unemployment rate as the percentage of unemployed persons among the labour force.

On Tuesday, the National Statistics Organisation (NSO) had released the survey results for 2020-21, which saw a decrease of 0.6 percentage points in unemployment rate that reached 4.2%, compared to 4.8% in 2019-20.

The quarterly survey results for January-March of this year said the unemployment rate among females aged 15 years and above in urban areas declined to 10.1% from 11.8% a year ago. It was 10.5% in the previous quarter. The opening up of workplaces after the lockdowns seems to have an impact on the unemployment rate. The unemployment rate among males decreased to to 7.7% compared with 8% in the corresponding quarter of previous year and 8.3% in the previous quarter.

The labour force participation rate in Current Weekly Status (CWS) in urban areas declined to 47.3% in the January-March quarter of 2022. It was 47.5% during January-March 2021 and 47.3% during October-December 2021. Labour force is defined as the part of the population which supplies or offers to supply labour for pursuing economic activities for the production of goods and services and, therefore, includes both employed and unemployed persons.

The worker population ratio in CWS in urban areas was 43.4% in January-March 2022, which showed an increase from 43.1% in January-March 2021 and 43.2% in October-December 2021.