India's unemployment rate declined to 5.1 per cent in July-September 2026 from 5.4 per cent in the preceding quarter, supported by an improvement in rural employment conditions, according to the latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on Tuesday. The decline was driven by rural areas, where the unemployment rate fell to 4.3 per cent from 4.8 per cent in April-June.