Hyderabad : Hyderabad led all major state capital districts in urban male employment participation in 2025, with the latest PLFS showing that nearly 76% of men were part of the workforce.
The city recorded the highest urban male worker population ratio (WPR) at 75.8% in the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2025 conducted by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MoSPI).
Associate professor at the School of Economics, University of Hyderabad, Krishna Reddy Chittedi said Hyderabad’s diversified economy, driven by a strong information technology sector and industrial base, could be a key factor behind the high WPR. experts caution that they do not necessarily reflect the quality of jobs or working conditions While the figures underscore the city’s strong employment engagement and economic activity. The survey indicates a high level of employment participation among urban men in the city during the year.
Around 45% of the state’s GST revenue comes from Hyderabad, reflecting its economic significance, Chittedi said. The survey also showed Hyderabad recording a 6.8% urban male unemployment rate among those aged 15-29, placing it sixth among capital districts with the lowest long-term youth unemployment. Thiruvananthapuram recorded the lowest rate at 3%, followed by Kolkata (5.2%), Dispur (5.8%), and Raipur and Bengaluru Urban (6.1% each).
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Experts said Hyderabad’s combination of high workforce participation and relatively low youth unemployment points to a strong labour market, although the two indicators measure different aspects of employment. Recent data showing Hyderabad’s substantial contribution to Telangana’s GST collections also highlights the scale of economic activity concentrated in the city. Download the TOI App.
The PLFS 2025 covers Jan to Dec and pertains to the population aged 15 years and above. Hyderabad’s figure of 75.8% means nearly three out of every four urban men were engaged in some form of work during the reference period. The city outperformed several other major capital districts, including Kolkata (72.2%), Bengaluru Urban (69.9%), Dispur (69.1%), and Chennai (67.5%). Raipur recorded 56.6%, while Mumbai stood at 54.8%. From Jan 2025, MoSPI revamped the PLFS methodology to generate employment indicators at more frequent intervals while continuing to provide annual estimates under both usual status and current weekly status measures. Hyderabad’s urban male WPR was also higher than Telangana ’s urban male WPR of 71.7% and the national urban male average of 73%.
Workers could therefore be counted as employed even when they were doing work below their qualifications or taking up jobs that did not match their preferences, he said.
Associate professor at CESS, Venkatanarayana Motkuri, said a high WPR indicated that a large number of people were willing to work and actively participating in the labour market. WPR, however, does not indicate whether employment is formal or informal, whether salaries are adequate or whether working conditions are suitable, Motkuri said. “For example, many gig workers are highly qualified engineers,” Motkuri said.
WPR refers to the proportion of people in this age group who are classified as workers. It also does not show whether work matches a person’s qualifications, skills, or preferences.