Tannuka Juneja
A sign of India moving towards formal employment, the EPFO’s provisional payroll data released on 20 February 2022 highlights that the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) added 14.60 lakh net subscribers during December 2021. The comparative study shows that there has been an increase of about 2.06 lakh net payroll growth in the month as compared to 12.54 lakh net subscribers added during the same period last year. There has been a net subscriber growth of 19.98 percent in December 2021 as compared to November 2021.
Out of the total 14.60 lakh net subscribers added, 9.11 lakh new members have been enrolled for the first time under the EPF and MP Act, 1952. Around 5.49 lakh net subscribers had left it but instead of opting for final withdrawal, they re-joined EPFO by having the option to continue their membership with EPFO by transferring their PF amount from the previous account to the current PF account. Additionally, the number of members exiting EPFO has been declining since July 2021.
Age-wise comparison of payroll data shows that the age group of 22-25 years registered the highest net enrollment during December 2021 with an increase of 3.87 lakhs. The age group of 18-21 years has also registered a good enrollment growth of around 2.97 lakhs. The age groups of 18-25 years have contributed about 46.89 per cent to the total net subscriber growth in December 2021. This indicates that a large number of first-time job seekers are joining the organised sector workforce.
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A state-wise comparison of payroll figures reveals that establishments covering the states of Maharashtra, Haryana, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have been at the forefront during the month, adding about 8.97 lakh subscribers across all age groups.
Gender-wise analysis indicates that the net female parole increase during the month is around 3 lakh. During the December 2021, the share of women nominees is about 20.51% of the total net customers.
Also Read: Formal Employment Important for Social Justice: UN
Payroll data is provisional because data creation is an ongoing process, as is the updating of employee records. So the previous data is updated every month. Since the month of May 2018, EPFO has been releasing payroll data covering the period after December 2017.
What is EPFO?
The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation provides provident funds, pension benefits to the members on their retirement and family pension and insurance benefits to their families in case of the untimely death of the member. It is the premier organisation of the country that is responsible for providing social security benefits to the organised/semi-organised sector employees covered under the legislation of EPF and MP Act, 1952.
