New Delhi Around 12.26 lakh new members joined the social security scheme run by the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) in February 2023, according to an official data released on Tuesday.
The latest data is part of a report – Payroll Reporting in India: An Employment Perspective – February 2023 – released by the National Statistical Office (NSO).
This shows that the gross new enrollments in ESIC increased from 1.15 crore in 2020-21 to 1.49 crore in 2021-22. It was 1.51 crore in 2019-20 and 1.49 crore in 2018-19.
The report states that the gross new enrollments with ESIC from September 2017 to February 2023 were 8.02 crore.
The NSO report is based on payroll data of new subscribers of various social security schemes run by ESIC, Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) and Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA).
As per the report, the net new enrollments with the retirement fund body EPFO in February 2023 stood at 10.15 lakh.
It showed that from September 2017 to February 2023, around 6.35 crore (gross) new subscribers joined the Employees’ Provident Fund Scheme.
As per the Employees’ Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, firms with more than 20 employees must provide retirement fund manager membership to the employees. New members of EPFO can therefore be taken as a proxy for job creation in the labor market.
The report said that since the subscriber numbers are from different sources, there are elements of overlap and the estimates are not additive.
“41,46,283 new subscribers have joined and contributed to NPS during September, 2017 to February, 2023 under Central Government, State Governments and Corporate schemes,” the report said.
The NSO also said that the report gives disaggregated views on the level of employment in the formal sector and does not measure employment at an aggregate level.
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