October Sees 7.5% Jobless Rate; Construction and Manufacturing Lose Millions of Jobs
CMIE Report: The report claims that a decline in employment in rural areas exacerbated the crisis in October, while unemployment in cities declined.
Due to the decline in employment in rural areas, India's unemployment rate rose to a six-month high of 7.5 percent in October 2025. This is significantly higher than the unemployment rate seen in recent months. Previously, the unemployment rate was at its highest in April 2025, at 7.7 percent. It fell to 6.4 percent in September and 6.3 percent in August. Despite the rising unemployment rate, 11 million people found employment in the agricultural sector.
According to a report by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), the harvesting of Kharif crops peaked in October, and Rabi sowing also began. This increased agricultural employment from 125 million in September to 136 million. Strangely, despite a sharp increase in agricultural employment, the rural unemployment rate rose to 7.6 percent. However, urban unemployment declined to 7.4 percent.
Employment in the construction, manufacturing, and services sectors declined last month due to migration to the agricultural sector. The construction industry saw a decline of over 9 million jobs. Nearly 3.8 million people lost their jobs in the manufacturing and service industries. Ninety percent of workers classified as daily wage laborers and small traders were unemployed in October. However, most of them found work in the fields and were reclassified as farmers or agricultural laborers. The number of people employed as traders (small self-employed entrepreneurs) declined by 5.5 million. Many of these people migrated to the agricultural sector due to lack of work.
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White-collar (or office) jobs in the country declined by 9 percent year-on-year in October. This decline was due to a temporary slowdown in hiring activity due to festivals like Dussehra and Diwali. Hiring activity declined by 15% in the IT sector and 24% in banking. This suggests that hiring activity remained stable even within IT unicorns.
According to the JobSpeak Index report, demand for artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) professionals increased significantly by 33%. Jobs in accounting and finance increased by 15%, education by 13%, and BPO/ITES by 6%.
