Formal job creation under the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation went up 11.9% in December to 1.56 million, the highest in the last three months, compared to 1.39 million added in November, shows the provisional payroll data released by the ministry of labour and employment on Tuesday.
Year-on-year the net new subscribers added to EPFO went up by 4.62% when compared to 1.49 million net new subscribers added in December 2022. “This surge in membership can be attributed to various factors, including increased employment opportunities, a growing awareness of employee benefits, and the effectiveness of EPFO’s outreach programs,” labour ministry said.
As per the data, of the total net subscribers added to EPFO in the month under consideration, 0.84 million are new members, which is highest during the previous three months and is a jump of 14.2% compared to November 2023.
Of these, 18-25 age group subscribers constituted 57.18% of the total new members added in December. “This statistic underscores a notable trend that the majority of individuals joining the organized workforce are youth, primarily first-time job seekers,” labour ministry added.
Further, 1.20 million members exited and subsequently rejoined EPFO in December 2023 which is an increase of 12.6% compared to November 2023 and the highest recorded in the past five months.
“These members switched their jobs and re-joined the establishments covered under the ambit of EPFO and opted to transfer their accumulations instead of applying for final settlement thus, safeguarding long-term financial well-being and extending their social security protection,” the ministry said.
Gender-wise analysis of payroll data shows that out of 0.84 million new members added, around 0.21 million are new female members, the highest recorded addition of female workforce in the last three months and a jump of 7.57% compared to November 2023.
Further, the net female member addition during the month stood at around 0.29 million reflecting an increase of approximately 3.54 % compared to the previous month of November 2023. “The surge in female member additions is indicative of a broader shift towards a more inclusive and diverse workforce,” it added.
Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Haryana emerged as the top five job creating states, adding 0.91 million or 58.3% of net member addition in December 2023.
The above payroll data is provisional since the data generation is a continuous exercise, as updating employee record is a continuous process. The previous data hence gets updated every month, it said.
Retirement fund body EPFO has been releasing the payroll data from April-2018, covering the period September, 2017 onwards. In monthly payroll data, the count of members joining EPFO for the first time through Aadhaar validated Universal Account Number (UAN), existing members exiting from coverage of EPFO and those who exited but re-joining as members, is taken to arrive at net monthly payroll.
