The Ministry of Labour and Employment on Friday released provisional payroll data of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), and said that the EPFO has added 16.26 lakh net members in the month of November 2022. The data shows an increase of 25.67 per cent in net additions compared to the previous month in October 2022, which indicates increased participation of first-time job seekers in organised sector of the country.


A year-on-year comparison of payroll data shows an increase of 16.50 per cent in net membership addition in November 2022 as compared to the corresponding month during last year in 2021.


Among the new members, the highest enrolment is registered in the age group of 18-21 years with 2.77 lakh members, followed by the age group of 22-25 years with 2.32 lakh members. The age groups of 18-25 years constitute 56.60 per cent of the total new members during the month. This shows that first-time job seekers are largely joining organised sector workforce of the country, the ministry said. 


Enrolment of net female members has been 3.19 lakh in November 2022. As compared to the previous month net female member addition has increased by around 0.56 lakh from 2.63 lakh in October 2022. A year-on-year comparison of enrolment data shows a growth of 7.90 per cent in net membership of females in organised workforce, in November 2022 compared with the net female membership during the same month in 2021.


State-wise payroll figures show that the month-on-month growing trend in net member addition is reflected in the states of Gujarat, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan. These states together add 58.23 per cent of total net membership 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 members added during the month, the ministry said. 


The payroll data is provisional since the data generation is a continuous exercise. 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-joined as members, is taken to arrive at net monthly payroll.


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