New Delhi: The unemployment rate among persons aged 15-29 years rose to a four-month high of 14.8% in February from 14.7% in January mainly due to higher joblessness among young men, according to the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on Monday (March 16).The female unemployment rate in the 15-29 age group stood at 17.6% in February. The male unemployment increased to 13.7% in February from 13.6% in January, Financial Express reported, quoting the PLFS data.In rural areas, in the 15-29 age group, joblessness also hit a four-month high at 13.1% in February. In urban areas, it declined to 18.3% in February from 18.6% in the preceding month, FE report added.Overall, the unemployment rate eased marginally to 4.9% in February, a slight improvement from 5% in January, largely due to a significant decrease in the female jobless rate.The female unemployment rate declined to 5.1% in February compared to 5.6% in January. However, the overall unemployment rate among men remained constant at 4.8% in February, the same level as the preceding month.In urban areas, the overall jobless rate in current weekly status (CWS) terms dropped to 6.6% in February from 7% in January, while rural unemployment rate remained constant at 4.2%.CWS tracks employment or job-seeking activity in the seven days preceding the survey. A person is considered unemployed in a week if he did not work even for one hour on any day during the reference week but sought or was available for work at least for one hour on any day during the reference week.Labour Force Participation RateThe overall Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) among persons of age 15 years and above was estimated at 55.9% in February, the same as recorded in January.In rural areas, the LFPR stood at 58.7% in February while the urban LFPR rose marginally to 50.4% in the same period from 50.3% in January.LFPR is the percentage of the population that is either working or actively looking for work.Notably, among youth, the LFPR dropped to 42.1% in February from 42.3% in January. Among male youth, the participation rate fell to 61.2% from 61.3%, and the female rate declined to 23.1% from 23.2% in the preceding month.Meanwhile, the worker population ratio (WPR), or employment rate, rose to 53.2% in February compared with 53.1% in January. Male WPR slipped to 73.8%, while the rate for females increased to 33.4%.Worker population ratioThe worker population ratio (WPR), which represents the number of person/person-days employed per 1,000 person/person-days, increased to 53.2% in February compared to 53.1% in January.In rural areas, while the female WPR showed improvement increasing to 38.4% in February from 38% in the preceding month, the male WPR declined to 75.4% in February compared to 75.7% in January.Similarly, in urban areas, the female WPR increased marginally to 23.3% in February, compared to 23% in January and the male WPR increased to 70.7% in February from 70.5% in the preceding month.The survey covered 3,74,879 persons – 2,13,679 in rural areas and 1,61,200 in urban areas.This article is updated with the corrected values of rural female worker population ratio (WPR) and urban male WPR and republished at 1.08 pm on March 18, 2026.