AP & Telangana Have More People In The Labour Market. So Why Is Unemployment Still Higher?

For a young person in Andhra Pradesh or Telangana, the jobs story can often feel pretty straightforward: finish college, start looking, send applications, attend interviews and hope something works out. But the latest government data reveals a more complicated picture of what is happening in the two states’ labour markets. More people are participating in the workforce than the national average, but unemployment is also higher. And among young people, roughly one in four is outside employment, education or training.

Start with the latest Periodic Labour Force Survey, or PLFS, and the Labour Market Survey released last week. Across India, 59.3% of people aged 15 and above were either working or looking for work. In Andhra Pradesh, the figure was 60.9%, and in Telangana it was 61.4%. This is the Labour Force Participation Rate, or LFPR. It basically tells us how many people are actually in the labour market, either because they have a job or because they are actively looking for one. The proportion actually working was also slightly higher in both states. India’s Worker Population Ratio (WPR) was 57.4%, compared with 58.3% in both AP and Telangana.

Overall Employment Rate

So, on the face of it, that sounds like good news: people are participating, and a slightly larger share of the population is actually working. But then comes the part that makes the story interesting. India’s unemployment rate for people aged 15 and above was 3.1% in 2025. In Andhra Pradesh, it was 4.2%, while Telangana recorded 5%. That means that although participation in the labour market is relatively high, a larger proportion of those who are participating are still without work.

The state-level reports show that this isn’t simply something that appeared in one table in 2025. Andhra Pradesh’s Socio-Economic Survey 2024-25, using PLFS 2023-24 data, recorded a 15+ LFPR of 60.2%, a WPR of 57.8% and an unemployment rate of 4.1%. Telangana’s Socio-Economic Outlook 2026, using PLFS data from October–December 2025, recorded an LFPR of 60.7%, WPR of 57% and unemployment of 6.1%. The periods are different, so these figures should not be treated as a single-year comparison, but the broader pattern is visible in the states’ own reports as well. Both state governments publish these reports as their regular assessments of economic and social indicators.

One In Four May Not Be Working

But if you are in your 20s, there is another number here that may be more revealing than the overall unemployment rate: NEET. It stands for young people who are Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET). The latest National Statistical Office (NSO) district-level labour market report puts the NEET rate among 15-29-year-olds at 26.6% in Andhra Pradesh and 26.2% in Telangana, compared with about 25% nationally. In simple terms, that is roughly one in every four young people in this age group who is neither working nor studying or undergoing training.

And the state averages conceal some very large differences between districts. In the Andhra Pradesh districts covered by the NSO report, the NEET rate ranges from 15.1% in Guntur to 37.3% in Srikakulam. In Telangana, it ranges from 18.4% in Kamareddy to 42.7% in Bhadradri Kothagudem. So while the state-level figure tells us there is a youth employment-and-education gap, the size of that gap can look very different depending on where you live.

The Tricky Question Of Employment

This is also why simply saying “AP and Telangana have high unemployment” misses the more interesting part of the story. The data does not show two states where people are simply sitting outside the labour market. Quite the opposite: participation is slightly higher than the national average, and the share actually working is also marginally higher. The problem is that unemployment remains higher among those who do enter the labour market, while a substantial share of young people remain outside all three: employment, education and training.

For AP and Telangana, that creates a very different question from simply asking whether the states need “more jobs.” What happens after young people enter the race for a job? Are there enough opportunities for the number of people entering the workforce? Are they finding jobs that match their education and skills? And what happens to those who don’t find one and aren’t continuing their education or training?

The government data doesn’t answer all of those questions by itself. But it does establish something important: the challenge isn’t simply getting young people into the labour market. They are already entering it. The bigger challenge is what happens once they get there.