According to the EPFO’s provisional payroll data, the number of jobs created under the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) decreased month over month by 14.45 percent to 8,02,250 from 9,37,780 net new subscribers added in November. December marks the third month in a row that the number of new participants in the social security programme has stayed below the 1 million threshold.
The government uses the EPFO payroll data as a frequent indicator of job growth in the formal sector of the economy.
The age group of 18 to 21 years has the greatest enrollment, with 2.39 lakh members, followed by the age group of 22 to 25 years, with 2.08 lakh members, out of the 8.02 lakh new members in December. The age brackets of 18 to 25 make up 55.64 percent of all new members this month. This suggests that the bulk of members joining EPFO are unemployed individuals who are joining the nation’s organised sector labour force.
The top five states in terms of net member addition, according to state-level payroll data, are Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Haryana. Together, these states increased the membership by 60.08 percent in December 2022.
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However, recent data from other sources has also indicated some slowdown in formal job creation
In December 2022, EPFO’s net membership increased by 14.93 lakh. According to payroll data compared year over year, there were 32,635 more net new members in December 2022 than there were in the same month in 2021.
The data also shows that roughly 3.84 lakh members left the organisation, while 10.74 lakh people left and rejoined the EPFO. Some members decided to transfer their accumulations rather than submit an application for final settlement when they changed occupations and re-joined EPFO-covered enterprises, therefore extending their social security coverage.
The payroll data is provisional because it is generated continuously as part of the ongoing process of updating employee records. As a result, the historical data is updated each month. The EPFO began providing payroll information in April 2018 for the period beginning in September 2017.
A new process that enables participants and their employers to jointly apply for a greater pension under the Employees’ Pension Plan has been introduced by the retirement fund organisation (EPS).
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