NEW DELHI: India’s unemployment rate (UR) fell to 5% in Sept, compared with 5.2% a year ago, even as the labour force participation rate (LFPR) improved in the country, particularly in rural areas, according to the monthly periodic labour force survey (PLFS) bulletin released Thursday. Sequentially, the UR for people aged 15 and above remained steady at 5% for the second straight month.The monthly bulletin measures labour market indicators in the current weekly status (CWS), which asks the respondents about their work-related condition in the past seven days. A person is classified as employed if she worked for at least one hour in this reference period.LFPR, which represents the share of people either working or seeking work, improved to 50.7% in urban areas as compared to 50.4% in Aug, while urban women’s participation rose to its highest level (25.9%) since Oct 2025. Urban women’s unemployment, however, rose to 9.2% in Sept from 8.9% in Aug, which drove overall joblessness among women to 5.2% from 5.1% during this period. tnn