New Delhi: India’s unemployment rate (UR) saw an increase of 4.7% in October while actual employment fell by half a million to 449.5 million in October, a survey by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has revealed, reported Financial Express.A matter of major concern is that over the recent months, the employment rate (ER) has been falling to levels which were not seen since the Covid-19 pandemic had severely jeopardized the economy.As per the CMIE’s consumer pyramids household survey, the ER went down from 39.4% in September to 39.3% in October. Back in January 2020, the ER was 39.7% before the pandemic ravaged the economy and the labour market.Moreover, the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data released by the statistics ministry on Tuesday (November 11) indicated that the unemployment rate, measured on a current weekly status basis for people aged 15 years and above, fell to 5.1% in July-September as compared to 5.4% during the April-June quarter.“Going by past trends, the labour force is expected to shrink in November and then rise substantially in December. This is unlikely to change the current trend of the labour force increases slowing down,” said Mahesh Vyas, MD & CEO, CMIE.The CMIE data further revealed that joblessness among women continued to be high at 12.7% in October, after slipping to 11.7% in September. Rural unemployment also rose to 4.7% in October after slipping to 3.4% in September.The Wire had earlier reported that the first-ever district-level PLFS for 2025 had revealed that more than 25% of the youth (in the age group of 15-29) in almost 250 districts across the country are not engaged in any productive work, and also not pursuing education or any sort of training for work.The survey results, released by the Statistics Ministry in September this year, had revealed that in nearly two-thirds of districts in states such as Bihar, UP, Haryana, Punjab and West Bengal a quarter of the young population is categorised as NEET (not in employment, education or training).