Mumbai: The employment rate in the country stood at an average 42 per cent of the country''s population during 2004-05 with 44 per cent employment in the rural areas and 37 per cent in urban areas, data released by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) revealed.

NSSO, however, denied earlier reports, which said 58 per cent of the country''s population, was without employment.

In urban India, trade, hotels and restaurants, manufacturing and services sectors accounted for nearly 24 per cent respectively of the employed males NSSO said. For urban women, the services'' sector accounted for 36 per cent of the total usually employed, followed by manufacturing (28 per cent) and agriculture (18 per cent), NSSO said. The unemployment rate was 1.7 per cent in the rural areas and 4.5 per cent in the urban areas. The jobless rate for women was higher than that of men and the highest among urban women.

Employment and unemployment were measured with three different approaches - usual status with a reference period of one year, current weekly status with one-week reference period and current daily status based on daily activity pursued during each day of the reference week.