New Delhi: Retirement fund body EPFO has registered a net addition of 13.96 lakh new subscribers in February 2023. Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation’s provisional payroll data released on Thursday highlights that EPFO has added 13.96 lakh net members in February 2023.
Around 7.38 lakh new members have come under the EPFO ambit for the first time, out of 13.96 lakh members added during the month, said a labor ministry statement. ,Also read: Saket Apple Store was a six-month project, hundreds of laborers were engaged in its completion,
Among the newly inducted members, it said, the highest enrollment is registered in the age group of 18-21 years with 2.17 lakh members, followed by 1.91 lakh members in the age group of 22-25 years. ,ALSO READ: RBI MPC’s fight against inflation is not over yet: Governor at MPC meeting,
The age group of 18-25 years accounted for 55.37 per cent of the total new members during the month. This indicates that majority of the members joining the country’s organized sector workforce are first time job seekers.
The data also shows that around 10.15 lakh members re-joined the EPFO membership, which is 8.59 per cent higher than the previous year.
These members changed their jobs and re-joined establishments covered under EPFO and opted to transfer their accumulations instead of applying for final settlement, thereby extending their social security cover.
Gender-wise analysis of payroll data shows that net enrollment of female members in February 2023 stood at 2.78 lakh, which is about 19.93 per cent of the net member addition for the month.
Of these, 1.89 lakh women members are new joining. This is about 25.65 per cent of all new entrants. In terms of female participation, net female member addition and new female member addition have recorded the highest ratio in the last four months. This indicates an increasing trend of participation of women in the organized workforce.
State-wise payroll data shows that the month-on-month rising trend in net member addition is reflected in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal etc.
In terms of net member addition, the top 5 states are Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat and Delhi.
These states together constitute 58.62 per cent of the net member addition during the month. Among all the states, Maharashtra is leading the chart by adding 20.90 per cent net members, followed by Tamil Nadu with 11.92 per cent.
Industry-wise classification of payroll data indicates that ‘specialist services’ (consisting of manpower suppliers, general contractors, security services, miscellaneous activities, etc.) constituted 41.17 per cent of the total member growth during the month.
On comparing the industry-wise figures with the previous month, higher enrollment has been observed in industries – leather products, apparel-manufacturing, establishments providing courier services, fish processing, non-vegetarian food preservation, etc.
Payroll data is provisional as data generation is a continuous process. The previous data is therefore updated every month. Since April 2018, EPFO has been releasing payroll data, which covers the period from September 2017 onwards.