India’s unemployment rate climbed to an 11-month high of 5.5 per cent in May from 5.2 per cent in April, even as labour-force participation eased, suggesting a softening labour market, according to the latest monthly bulletin of the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) on Monday. Key Labour Market Indicators Decline Notably, the labour-force participation rate (LFPR), which is the percentage of the population that is either working or actively looking for work, hit an 11-month low of 54.4 per cent in May, down from 55 per cent recorded in April. The LFPR rate in rural areas declined to 56.6 per cent during the month from 57.5 per cent in April, while in urban areas it decreased marginally to 49.8 per cent from 50.1 per cent.