India's biggest policy challenge

Lower labour force participation needs attention

Recovery in economic activity with the ebbing of the second wave of Covid-19 helped create jobs in the last quarter of 2021. According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey’s latest quarterly bulletin, released last week, the unemployment rate for workers of 15 years or above in urban areas came down to 8.7 per cent in October-December 2021, compared to 10.3 per cent during the same quarter of 2020. On a sequential basis, the unemployment rate declined from the level of 9.8 per cent. The labour force participation rate also increased marginally during the quarter to 47.3 per cent compared to