Hyderabad: Even as Hyderabad ranks among India’s better-paying urban labour markets, the city is grappling with higher unemployment than many of its peers and a sizeable number of young people remaining outside both jobs and education, according to the National Statistics Office’s (NSO) first city-level labour market report covering 46 million-plus cities.
Hyderabad’s unemployment rate stood at 6.8 per cent, above the 4.9 per cent average for million-plus cities and considerably higher than other major urban centres such as Bengaluru (2.8 per cent), Surat (1 per cent), Howrah (0.8 per cent) and Rajkot (0.3 per cent). At the other end of the spectrum, Patna recorded the highest unemployment rate in the country at 20.9 per cent, followed by Prayagraj at 15.8 percent and Dhanbad at 15 per cent.
Women continue to face greater difficulties in finding jobs in Hyderabad, with female unemployment touching 9.1 percent.
The report also flagged concerns over youth disengagement. Around 25.1 per cent of Hyderabad’s population aged 15 to 29 years were not in employment, education or training (NEET), almost identical to the urban India average of 25 per cent.
The rate was significantly higher among young women at 37.3 per cent, compared with 12.6 per cent among young men. By comparison, cities such as Coimbatore (8.2 per cent) and Navi Mumbai (8.4 per cent) reported some of the lowest youth NEET rates in the country, while Dhanbad (36.7 per cent) and Amritsar (35.8 per cent) recorded the highest.
The higher unemployment comes despite Hyderabad recording stronger labour force participation than the average large Indian city. The city’s Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) stood at 55.5 percent, above the 52.4 percent average for million-plus cities, although it remained below Surat’s nation-leading 66.7 per cent. Female labour force participation in Hyderabad also lagged behind cities such as Coimbatore, where 41.3 per cent of women participate in the workforce, while female participation in Prayagraj was just 9.3 per cent.
Hyderabad nevertheless remains one of India’s strongest markets for salaried employment. The report found that 62.1 percent of workers in the city hold regular wage or salaried jobs, compared with 58.5 percent across million-plus cities. Bengaluru reported an even higher share of salaried workers at 67.4 percent.
The city also ranked among the country’s better-paying labour markets. Regular salaried workers earned an average of Rs 31,153 per month, above the million-plus city average of Rs 28,808, though below Bengaluru’s Rs 34,323 and far behind Navi Mumbai’s Rs 51,515, the highest in the country.
Self-employed workers in Hyderabad reported average monthly earnings of Rs 30,075, while casual workers earned an average daily wage of Rs 784. Self-employed workers in Navi Mumbai earned an average of Rs 66,613 per month, the highest among all million-plus cities, while regular salaried workers in Ludhiana earned an average of Rs 15,205 per month, among the lowest in the country.
Despite the higher unemployment rate, Hyderabad remained among India’s most productive urban economies. The city recorded a Gross Value Added (GVA) per worker of Rs 2,76,700, the second highest among the 46 cities covered in the survey, behind only Pimpri-Chinchwad (Rs 2,90,268) and ahead of Delhi (Rs 2,65,541). At the other end, Gwalior recorded the lowest GVA per worker at Rs 98,273.
The findings are based on a survey of 1,128 households in Greater Hyderabad, covering 1,657 men and 1,662 women aged 15 years and above, conducted during 2025 under the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS).
This post was last modified on July 1, 2026 4:38 pm