The National Statistics Office has released its first comprehensive profile of all 46 million-plus cities in India, marking a significant shift from the previous state-focused approach. According to reports from Business Standard, this new data was made possible by redesigning the Periodic Labour Force Survey from January 2025, which now treats each city as its own stratum. While the headline unemployment rates appear similar at 4.9% for big cities versus 4.8% for urban India, the data reveals stark differences in employment composition and earnings that a national average cannot capture.
The data reveals significant variations in worker compensation even within similar service economies. As reported by Business Standard, in Chennai, regular salaried employees earn approximately ₹29,000 per month, while in Kolkata, the same category earns ₹19,000 per month. The employment composition shows 71% of Chennai workers in salaried jobs compared to 51% in Kolkata, with 24% of Chennai workers self-employed versus 40% in Kolkata. Self-employed workers in Chennai earn ₹30,500 per month compared to ₹18,000 in Kolkata, representing barely three-fifths of Chennai's self-employed earnings.
The data reveals persistent gender wage disparities across all major cities. According to Business Standard, in Greater Visakhapatnam, where 34.6% of women participate in the labor force, women earn only 54% of what men earn, with salaried women earning ₹18,330 against ₹33,707 for men. This gender penalty persists across all 13 cities with the largest samples, with the pay gap ranging from 54% in Visakhapatnam to 89% in Delhi. Women work approximately 8 hours less per week than men but earn only half their pay, indicating a significant gender penalty that participation rates alone fail to reveal.
The data reveals concerning barriers to women's participation in the workforce. As reported by Business Standard, 68.7% of women cite childcare and housework as reasons for remaining outside employment, compared to just 1% of men. Young women outside employment, education and training outnumber young men in all 46 cities, suggesting that rising participation rates may coexist with limited opportunities. The data suggests that while cities offer higher wages than rural areas, the relevant metric is not just the average wage but how far those gains extend across the workforce and whether they are accessible to women on terms worth accepting.
Recent labor advocacy has established ₹26,000 per month as the minimum wage benchmark for workers across India, with demands for dearness allowance components to address inflation effects. The data reveals that 50-60% of workers lack defined employer-employee relationships, highlighting the need for formalized appointment letters and clear employment terms. Small and medium enterprises employ over 50% of the workforce but face challenges with contractual employment and limited access to training resources. The gig economy continues to grow post-Covid, creating new employment categories that lack formal regulatory frameworks, with only Jharkhand, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, and Kerala introducing partial policies for gig workers.
