India’s unemployment rate dropped drastically to 6.43% in September due to an increase in labor participation in both rural and urban areas, according to data from the Indian Economy Monitoring Center (CMIE).
In August, India’s unemployment rate hit a one-year high of 8.3% as employment fell sequentially by 2 million to 394.6 million.
“In September, the unemployment rate dropped significantly with an increase in labor participation in both urban and rural areas,” CMIE chief executive Mahesh Vyas told PTI on Saturday.
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The unemployment rate in rural areas fell to 5.84% in September from 7.68% in August, while in urban areas it fell to 7.70% from 9.57% the previous month, according to the data.
The nearly 8 million increase in labor participation is a sign that the country’s economy is doing well, Vyas added.
According to CMIE data, the unemployment rate was highest in Rajasthan at 23.8% in September, followed by Jammu and Kashmir at 23.2%, Haryana at 22.9%, Tripura at 17%, Jharkhand 12.2% and Bihar. at 11.4 percent.
Unemployment was lowest in Chhattisgarh at 0.1% in September, followed by Assam at 0.4%, Uttrakhand at 0.5%, Madhya Pradesh at 0.9%, Gujarat at 1.6%, Meghalaya 2.3% and Odisha 2.9%. percent, the data showed.
Meanwhile, in August, the unemployment rate hit its highest level in a year as erratic rainfall, which impacted sowing activities, hit employment in rural India.
In August, the urban unemployment rate climbed to 9.6% and the rural unemployment rate also increased to 7.7%, according to CMIE data.