New Delhi, Nov 10 (IANS) India registered an increase in both the overall Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) and Worker Population Ratio (WPR) in the July-September quarter of the current financial year, compared to the same period of previous fiscal, reflecting the rise in employment during the quarter, according to figures released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) on Tuesday. 

Overall LFPR for persons of age 15 years and above increased to 55.5 per cent during July-September, 2026 from 54.6 per cent in the previous quarter. The improvement was driven by an increase in LFPR for both the rural and urban areas. In rural areas, LFPR for persons of age 15 years and above rose to 58.1 per cent in the current quarter from 56.9 per cent in the previous quarter. Similarly, urban LFPR increased marginally to 50.4 per cent from 50.2 per cent during the same period, the data showed.

The gender-wise figures show that the overall female LFPR increased to 34.7 per cent during the current quarter from 33.2 per cent in the previous quarter. Among males, the urban LFPR registered a marginal increase, reaching 77.3 per cent during the quarter, from 77.0 per cent in the April-June 2026 period.

Overall Worker Population Ratio (WPR) for persons of age 15 years and above, which is another indicator of employment, increased to 52.7 per cent during the quarter of July-September 2026, from 51.7 per cent in the previous quarter.

In comparison with the corresponding quarter of the previous year, the overall WPR increased by 0.5 percentage points during July-September 2026. Rural WPR also recorded an increase of 0.9 percentage points over the same period. Urban WPR maintained stability in the current quarter compared with the previous year.

Overall Unemployment Rate (UR) declined for persons of age 15 years and above declined to 5.1 per cent during the current quarter, compared with 5.4 per cent in the previous quarter. During the same period, the rural UR fell to 4.3 per cent from 4.8 per cent, while urban UR remained broadly stable at 6.8 per cent in the quarter.

The share of regular wage employment in urban areas reported an increase of 0.3 percentage points to 49.6 per cent compared to the previous quarter.

During July-September 2026, the share of self-employed people in rural areas increased by 1.3 percentage points to 62.7 per cent compared with last quarter.

Rural agricultural employment increased by 3.8 percentage points over the quarter to 56.7% during July-September 2026.