New Delhi, May 16 -- India's headline unemployment rate was 5.2% in April, according to Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) on Friday. This is 10 basis points - one basis point is one hundredth of a percentage point - higher than the unemployment rate in April 2025, the first month when PLFS started releasing monthly employment numbers. The unemployment rate in April 2026 also increased by 10 basis points compared to March 2026. To be sure, unemployment rates are best compared annually to discount for seasonality. It is consistent across rural and urban labour markets: a 10-basis point increase in both, with the rural and urban unemployment rate being 4.6% and 6.6% in April 2026. The mon...