India to Provide Monthly Unemployment Estimates for the First Time

India will publish monthly unemployment estimates from April 2025, improving labor market insights for policymakers and decision-makers.

on Feb 10, 2025

The Indian government will publish unemployment statistics every month from April 2025. This means policymakers will receive labor market data much more frequently than before, Reuters reported, quoting a senior official on Friday.

Until now, the government has been publishing unemployment figures for the urban economies quarterly and releasing annual data combining both urban and rural regions. India's unemployment estimates, however, are available only through the private think tank, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), in Mumbai, in monthly measures.

Saurabh Garg, Secretary of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), confirmed the upcoming shift during an event. "We have already been collecting unemployment data since January, but the release will begin in April," he said.

Garg further explained that the sample design for data collection has been revised since January to enable district-level estimates. This adjustment aims to provide policymakers with more detailed insights that could influence decision-making at the local level.

Geeta Singh Rathore, Director General of the National Sample Survey (NSS), outlined additional changes to the labor force survey. She stated that the government would begin issuing monthly estimates on unemployment, workforce participation, and employment trends across the country.

Further, the periodic quarterly labor force survey will henceforth present estimates both for urban and rural areas so that data could be available with better granularity.

Follow Frontlist Media For More Information.