- Around 8.08 lakh members were enrolled for the first time in January 2024
- In January last year, 8,30,047 subscribers joined the EPFO
NE BUSINESS BUREAU
NEW DELHI, MARCH 24
Retirement fund body Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation ((EPFO) added a net 16.2 lakh subscribers in January 2024, according to payroll data released on Sunday.
Around 8,08,000 members were enrolled for the first time in January 2024, a Labour Ministry statement said on Sunday.
The Employees’ Provident Fund Organization’s (EPFO) provisional payroll highlighted that the EPFO has added 16.02 lakh members on a net basis in January 2024, the ministry said.
A noticeable aspect of the data is the dominance of the 18-25 age group, constituting a significant 56.41 per cent of the total new members added in January 2024 indicating the majority of individuals joining the organized workforce are youth, primarily first-time job seekers.
The payroll data highlighted that approximately 12.17 lakh members exited and subsequently rejoined EPFO.
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, it stated.
Gender-wise analysis of payroll data unveiled that out of 808,000 new members, around 205,000 are new female members. Also, the net female member addition during the month stood at around 303,000.
The female member addition is indicative of a broader shift towards a more inclusive and diverse workforce.
Of the total net membership, around 40.71 per cent is from expert services (consisting of manpower suppliers, normal contractors, security services, miscellaneous activities etc).
The payroll data is provisional since the data generation is a continuous exercise, as updating employee records is a continuous process.
The previous data hence gets updated every month.
According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), which conducts its own Consumer Pyramids Household Survey (CPHS), the labour markets fared slightly better in January as the unemployment rate fell during the month to 6.8 per cent from 8.7 per cent in the previous month on the back of decline in the number of people looking for work. During January, the labour force participation rate (LFPR) inched down from 41.9 per cent to 40.6 per cent.
