In 16.5% jump, EPFO adds 16.26 lakh subscribers in November 2022

Retirement fund body EPFO net added 16.26 lakh new subscribers in November 2022, registering a 16.50% rise as compared to the year-ago period, the Ministry of Labour & Employment said on Friday.

The data indicate a 25.67 per cent increase in net additions compared to the previous month in October 2022, the data showed.

Of the total 16.26 lakh members added during the month, around 8.99 lakh new members came under the ambit of EPFO for the first time thus, showing that new members joining EPFO has increased by 1.71 lakh, from 7.28 lakh in October 2022.

Among the new members, highest enrolment is registered in the age-group of 18-21 years with 2.77 lakh members, followed by age-group of 22-25 years with 2.32 lakh members.

The age-groups of 18-25 years constitutes 56.60% of total of new members during the month. This shows that first-time job seekers are largely joining organised sector workforce of the country.

The data also highlights that approximately 11.21 lakh members re-joined EPFO membership.

“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 said.

Gender-wise analysis of payroll data indicates that enrolment of net female members has been 3.19 lakh in November, 2022.

As compared to previous month net female member addition has increased by around 0.56 lakh from 2.63 lakh in October 2022.

Year-on-year comparison of enrolment data shows a growth of 7.90% in net membership of females in organised workforce, in November 2022 comparing with the net female membership during previous year in November, 2021.

State-wise payroll figures highlight that month-on-month growing trend in net member addition is reflected in the states of Gujarat, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra & Rajasthan.

These states together add 58.23% of total net membership during the month. Of all the states, Maharashtra is leading by adding 20% of overall member addition followed by the state of Tamil Nadu with 10.91% 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 40 per cent of total member addition during the month. Comparing industry-wise data with that of previous month, higher enrolments have been noticed in industries namely, ‘automobile servicing’, ‘building and construction industry’, ‘engineers- engg. contractors’, ‘financing establishment’, ‘hospitals’ etc.

The 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. 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, it stated.

The EPFO is India’s principal organisation responsible for social security coverage to the organised sector workforce covered under the purview of Employees’ Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952.