India to begin publishing monthly 'unemployment data' from April: Report

The Indian government will begin publishing monthly unemployment statistics from April 2025, providing more frequent labour market data to policymakers, a senior official announced on Friday, according to Reuters.

Until now, the government has released unemployment figures on a quarterly basis for urban areas, along with combined annual data for both urban and rural regions. In contrast, monthly unemployment estimates for India have been primarily available through the Mumbai-based private think tank, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE).

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.

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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.

Moreover, the periodic quarterly labor force survey will now present separate estimates for both urban and rural areas, improving the granularity of the data.

Sample Size

To enhance accuracy, the sample size for the employment survey has been increased from approximately 16,000 to 22,000, Rathore added. This expansion is intended to reduce the margin of error in the reported figures.

Finance Minister Response on Unemployement

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday criticised Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, over his remarks on unemployment in India. Gandhi had stated in Parliament that successive governments over the past 20 years have failed to provide a definitive answer to the youth on the issue of unemployment.

In a post-Budget interview with India Today TV, Sitharaman strongly countered his claims, asserting that during the UPA regime, the Indian economy was at a standstill, banks suffered heavy losses, and several industry leaders shut down operations or left the country.

"Forget employment—during the UPA rule, nothing moved. The economy was stagnant, banks incurred massive losses, industries shut down, and some business leaders even left India," she said.

Sitharaman further argued that Gandhi’s admission of the UPA's failure to generate employment was insufficient.