The urban unemployment rate rose to 9.22% in April from 8.28% the previous month, while the rural unemployment rate fell to 7.18% from 7.29%, the data showed.
The highest unemployment rate of 34.5% was recorded in the northern state of Haryana, followed by 28.8% in Rajasthan.
Economists say job opportunities have been hurt by weak domestic demand and a slow economic recovery amid rising prices.
Retail inflation hit a 17-month high of 6.95% in March and is expected to peak around 7.5% later this year, Shilan Shah, an economist at Capital Economics, Singapore, said on Saturday. He expects a rise in the repo rate by the
in June.
Data from the Mumbai-based CMIE is closely watched by economists and policymakers, as the government does not release its own monthly figures.
They also observed the decline in the labor force participation rate – the proportion of people employed or looking for work among the labor force. This figure fell from 43.7% in March 2019 to 39.5% in March 2022, according to earlier data from the CMIE, as millions of people lost their jobs during the pandemic.