The recent employment statistics in the state of Andhra Pradesh presents a grim scenario of the economy of the state, with the rate of joblessness far ahead of the national average rate of joblessness in the country. In the Rajya Sabha recently, with regard to the latest PLFS data available for the July to September period of 2025, was reported the rate of unemployment in the state of Andhra Pradesh stands at 8.2 per cent, compared to the national average of 5.2 per cent.
The data, released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in response to parliamentary questions on December 15, suggests that the crisis is hitting rural communities the hardest. While urban unemployment in the state sits at 7.7 percent, the rate in rural areas has climbed to 8.5 percent. This disparity points toward a persistent "agrarian distress," where the farming sector is no longer able to absorb the local workforce, yet there aren't enough manufacturing or service-sector jobs in smaller towns to pick up the slack.
The most striking takeaway from the report is the gender gap. Women in Andhra Pradesh are facing a disproportionate struggle to find work; the combined rural-urban unemployment rate for women has hit 10.1 per cent, nearly double the national female average of 5.2 percent. In the countryside, this figure increases even higher to 10.5 per cent.
While the government underscored the reach of the National Career Service portal, stating it had over six crore registered jobseekers across the country, the numbers in Andhra Pradesh suggest that digital platforms alone are not a solution to the mismatch between labor supply and demand. For many in the state, especially among youth and rural women, the search for jobs that provide stable, dignified work remains an uphill task; this often results in a shift toward precarious casual labour or total joblessness.
Also read: Andhra tops India’s fruit, fish production: RBI
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