Formal job creation under EPFO falls in February

As per the provisional data, released on Thursday, formal job creation fell slightly when compared month-on-month with net new employees added to the retirement fund body at 1.48 million in January.

According to the data, out of 1.39 million subscribers added to EPFO during the month, around 0.73 million new members have come under the ambit of EPFO for the first time.

Further, around 1.01million members re-joined EPFO membership which is 8.59% higher compared to last year, it said. “These members switched their jobs and re-joined the establishments covered under EPFO and opted to transfer their accumulations instead of applying for final settlement thus extending their social security protection,” it added.

Among the newly joined members, highest enrolment is registered in the age-group of 18-21 years with 0.21 million members, followed by the addition of 0.19 million members in the 22-25 years age bracket.

“The age-groups of 18-25 years constitute 55.37% of total new members during the month. This indicates that the majority of the members joining the organised sector workforce of the country are first-time job seekers,” it added.

Gender-wise analysis of payroll data reflects that enrolment of net female members has been 0.27 million in February, 2023, of which around 0.18 million female members are the new joinees or 25.65% of the total new joinees. State-wise comparison shows high month-on-month addition in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal. As per the data, the top five states in terms of net member addition are Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Delhi, together constituting 58.62% of net member addition during the month.

“Of all the states, Maharashtra has added 20.9% of overall member addition followed by Tamil Nadu at 11.92% during the month.

The classification of industry-wise payroll data indicates that ‘Expert Services’ (consisting of manpower suppliers, normal contractors, security services, miscellaneous activities etc.) constitute 41.17% of total member addition during the month.

Further, month-on-month payroll data shows higher enrolments across industries such as leather products, garment-making, establishments engaged in rendering courier services, fish processing and non-veg food preservation etc.

“The payroll data is provisional since the data generation is a continuous exercise, as updating employee records is a continuous process,” it added.

EPFO has been releasing the payroll data since April 2018 covering the period September, 2017 onwards.

EPFO is a social security organization responsible for providing social security benefits in the form of provident, pension and insurance funds to the organized workforce of the country covered under the provisions of Employees’ Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952.