It means working class heading towards a very difficult days ahead with the fuel crisis. Inflation and prices are rising, they have to struggle in getting even minimum wage, where demanding living wages feared to attract BJP government’s ire, even to be labelled as terrorists, as seen in the April workers unrest in Noida, who were demanding minimum wages. Supreme Court had to comment during a May 15 hearing in the matter “they are not terrorists only demanding basic wages … state’s duty is to ensure living wages for workers not label them as terrorists.”

The monthly bulletin of the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) for the month of April 2026, in this context, has acquired a special significance. Rise in unemployment rate has never been so high since the last six months when it was 5.2 per cent in October 2025. In February, it was 4.9 per cent, which rose to 5.1 per cent in March, and 5.2 per cent in April. Unemployment rate for male rose to 5.1 per cent in April, and for female it was 5.4 per cent.

Situation is becoming worse for the youth of age group 15-19 years. Unemployment rate among them peaked to 15.3 per cent in April, highest since December 2025, when it was 14.4 per cent. During this period youth male unemployment rate rose from 13.7 per cent to 14.1 per cent, and female youth unemployment rate rose from 16.3 per cent to 18.7 per cent.

For urban areas, unemployment rate was as high as 6.6 per cent in April – 5.9 per cent for male, and 8.5 per cent for female. Urban Youth unemployment was as high as 18 per cent - 15.9 per cent for male and 24.5 per cent for female.

For rural areas unemployment rose to 4.6 per cent in April, highest since November 2025 when it was 3.9 per cent. For male it was 4.7 per cent in April, highest since October 2025. For female it was only 3.6 per cent in December 2025, but rose to 4.4 per cent in April 2026. Youth unemployment in rural areas rose from 12.6 per cent in December 2025 to 14.1 per cent in April 2026. In April, rural male youth unemployment was 13.3 per cent and for female it was 16.2 per cent.

Worker Population Ratio (WPR) in CWS, that is the people who actually worked at least 1 hour in 7 days preceding the survey, was 39.5 per cent in April 2026, has been declining, that should be a matter of grave concern, because it has never been so low since the publication of the revamped PLFS since April 2025. It was as high as 53.3 per cent in November 2025, which came down to 40.1 per cent in January 2026.

WPR in April for male was 54.5 per cent and for female only 24.6 per cent, maintaining a continuous declining trend since December 2025 when these were 55.4 and 25.9 per cent respectively. For youth WPR in April 2026 was even lower at 34.9 per cent – 17.8 per cent for youth female and 51.8 per cent for male. Both are declining since December 2025, when these were 18.9 per cent and 53.1 per cent respectively.

For urban areas, WPR was 36.9 per cent in April 2026 – 18.3 per cent for female and 55.2 per cent for male. WPR in rural areas was 40.7 per cent – 27.5 per cent for female and 54.2 per cent for male.

Now let us have a look on Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), that is those who worked and those were actively searching jobs. LFPR in April 2026 was 41.6 per cent that has sharply come down from 55.8 per cent in November 2025. It is the lowest in the last one year since April 2025. In April 2026, LFPR for female stood at 26 per cent and for male 57.5 per cent. For youth it was 41.2 per cent – 21.9 per cent for female youth and 60.4 per cent for male youth.

LFPR in urban areas was 39.5 per cent in April 2026 – 20 per cent for female and 58.7 per cent for male. In rural areas, it was 42.6 per cent – 28.8 per cent for female and 56.9 per cent for male.

The data shows that the India’s policy on labour is not working for unemployed women and youth. This problem needs urgent redressal along with the deteriorating scenario of the workers in India, in fast changing world of work, in which large number of them are likely to lose their jobs in near future. (IPA Service)