The unemployment rate in India remained unchanged from the previous month at 5.5% in June of 2026, the highest in nearly one year, slightly above market expectations that it would ease to 5.4%. The surge in energy prices due to the halt of commercial vessel flows in the Persian Gulf weakened the rupee and dampened the purchasing power for household and businesses. The unemployment rate rose to 6.6% for urban centers from 6.4% in the previous month. This was enough to offset a 0.1 percentage point drop for unemployment in rural areas of India, easing from a one-year high. Still, the unemployment rate inched down by 0.1 percentage point from the corresponding period of the previous year. The employment rate remained unchanged at the 11-month low of 51.4%, and the labor force participation rate remained at the 11-month low of 54.4%.