India's July unemployment rate lowest in six months

As agricultural activity increased during the monsoon, India's total unemployment rate decreased to its lowest level in six months in July.

The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) released figures on Monday showing that the jobless rate decreased to 6.8% in July from 7.8% in June.

Since January, when it was 6.5 percent, the unemployment rate in July has never been lower. The unemployment rate in the previous quarter was 7%.

The unemployment rate in rural India fell sharply in July to 6.14 percent, the lowest level in six months, and was significantly lower than the unemployment rate in urban regions, which increased to 8.21 percent.

Last month, the jobless rates in India's rural and urban areas were 8.03 percent and 7.30 percent, respectively.

The percentage of urban unemployment is rising at a time when many businesses are laying off workers in large numbers owing to a lack of funding and the attrition rate in the IT industry is high.

Increased agricultural activity, according to TeamLease Services Vice President and Business Head Ajoy Thomas, has helped lower the unemployment rate in rural India.

 According to him, the surge in agricultural activities in rural India helped create many of the jobs that were desperately needed, according to CNBCTV18.com.

With a jobless rate of 26.9%, Haryana leads all other states, followed by Jammu & Kashmir (20.2%), Rajasthan (19.1%), and Bihar (18.8 percent). According to CMIE data, Chhattisgarh (0.8%), Odisha (0.9%), and Meghalaya (1.5%) had the lowest unemployment rates in July.

The administration stated last week that the latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data shows that the nation's unemployment rate is on the decline.

Rameswar Teli, a minister of state for labour and employment, stated in a written response to the Rajya Sabha on Thursday that the all-India unemployment rate for those aged 15 and over in ordinary status in 2020–21 was 4.2 percent, down from 4.8 percent in 2019–20 and 5.8 percent in 2018.