Rural Telangana outperforms urban areas in employment & workforce participation, finds survey | Hyderabad News
Hyderabad: Rural Telangana has a higher proportion of people participating in the labour market and securing employment than urban areas, while unemployment is more than twice as high in cities, according to the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) Quarterly Bulletin for July-Sept 2026.The survey, covering people aged 15 years and above, puts Telangana’s Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) at 60.3%. The rate is higher in rural areas at 65.2%, compared with 54.5% in urban areas.The Worker Population Ratio (WPR), which measures the proportion of the population actually employed, stood at 56.4% in Telangana. While rural areas recorded a WPR of 62.5%, the urban ratio was lower at 49.2%.The unemployment rate, which measures the proportion of unemployed people among those in the labour force, stood at 6.4% in Telangana. However, the urban rate was 9.6%, against 4.1% in rural areas.The figures point to a marked difference in labour market conditions between rural and urban Telangana. While a larger share of rural residents is participating in the workforce and is employed, urban areas have a higher proportion of job seekers who have not found work.The difference between the LFPR and WPR is important. LFPR measures the proportion of the population that is part of the labour force, including people who are employed and those who are unemployed but seeking or available for work. It indicates how many people are participating in the job market, rather than how many have actually found employment. A higher LFPR does not necessarily mean that more people have jobs, as it also includes those looking for work. WPR, on the other hand, captures only employed people.Meanwhile, Jadhav Chakradhar, assistant professor, Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), said there is a need to evaluate what happened to the migration that occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic from urban areas to rural areas.“This needs to be examined because more rural jobs show that there is activity and those people who went to rural areas might not have returned in large numbers after going to rural areas. This is a trend across India,” he said.The distribution of employment across sectors also reflects this divide. Agriculture accounted for 63.4% of employed people in rural areas, but only 4.7% in urban areas. Its share in Telangana’s overall workforce was 40.1%.In contrast, the tertiary sector, which includes services, accounted for 67.4% of urban employment and 18.2% of rural employment. Its share in the state’s combined workforce was 37.7%. The secondary sector accounted for 22.2% of employment across Telangana, with a higher share in urban areas at 27.9%, compared with 18.4% in rural areas.The figures show the significant dependence of rural employment on agriculture, while urban employment is largely concentrated in the services sector. Economists caution that labour force participation and employment ratios need to be read alongside the nature and quality of work. A high WPR does not necessarily indicate access to secure, regular or well-paid jobs.Experts say the higher rural employment figures also warrant an examination of migration patterns, particularly the movement of people from urban to rural areas during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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