New Delhi, Feb. 11 -- India's headline unemployment rate was 4.8% in the quarter ended December 2025, the lowest in three quarters, according to the latest quarterly data from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) on Tuesday. Unemployment was 4% in rural areas and 6.7% in urban areas. It is not possible to say whether the latest numbers signify an improvement or deterioration in the job market because the current series of quarterly numbers starts only in the quarter starting April 2025. Job market numbers are usually compared for the same quarter across years to account for seasonality of jobs, such as those in agriculture. Sequentially, the quarter ending December saw the lowest unemploym...