India’s overall unemployment rate climbed to 5.5% in May, an 11-month high, up from 5.2% in April, according to official labour force data cited by economic research trackers. Rural unemployment rose more sharply, to 5.1% from 4.6%, while urban unemployment eased slightly to 6.4%.
Graduate jobs crisis
The figures come alongside findings from the State of Working India report, which found that fewer than 7% of male graduates secure a permanent salaried job within a year of finishing their degree, and only 3.7% land white-collar positions. Youth unemployment, covering the 15-29 age group, remains close to three times the national average — a gap researchers say reflects a mismatch between the number of graduates entering the workforce each year and the formal jobs available to absorb them.
A bright spot: women’s participation
One notable shift is in female labour force participation, which has nearly doubled from 23.3% in the 2017-18 Periodic Labour Force Survey to roughly 42% in the 2024-25 survey round — though economists caution that much of this growth has come in informal and low-paid work rather than salaried employment.
Regional variation
State-level data shows unemployment above 6% in Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand, while industrial states such as Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh report rates below 1.5%, underlining sharp regional disparities in job availability across the country.
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