New Delhi, Aug. 17 -- India's overall unemployment rate (UR) for persons aged 15 years and above declined to 5.1 per cent in July from 5.5 per cent in June, signalling an improvement in labour market conditions, while the labour force participation rate (LFPR) rose to 55.4 per cent from 54.4 per cent during the month, according to the latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) on Monday.

The decline in unemployment was led by rural areas, where the UR fell sharply to 4.5 per cent in July from 5.0 per cent in June. Urban unemployment, however, remained broadly stable at 6.7 per cent, compared with 6.6 per cent in the previous month. On a year-on-year basis, the overall and rural unemploymen...