The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) saw a net addition of 17.21 lakh members in September, according to the payroll data released on Monday. Comparatively, the data indicated an increase of 21,475 net members during August 2023. The yearly comparison of the data revealed that 38,262 net members were added over September 2022.
The labour ministry stated that September 2023 saw an enrollment of about 8.92 lakh new members. Among these new members, about 58.92 percent of overall new members belonged to the age group of 18 to 25. Indicating that youth formed the majority of the members joining the organized sector.
Around 1.193 million members rejoined the EPFO after switching jobs, choosing to transfer their savings to social security instead of applying for a final settlement.
Against the previous month, overall exits dipped by 12.17 percent, with 3.64 lakh exits recorded in September 2023. The data revealed that the overall exits have been on the decline since June 2023.
Gender-wise, the data found that about 2.26 lakh new members added during September this year were female, and the net female member addition during the period stood at 3.30 lakh.
When comparing data from one month to the next, there was significant growth in the number of people employed in various industries such as sugar, courier services, iron and steel, hospitals and travel agencies. Of the total new hires, 41.46 percent were from professional services which included manpower suppliers, security services, and general contractors.
EPFO has released monthly payroll data since April 2018, covering the period from September 2017 onwards. The data includes the number of new joiners with validated UAN, existing members who leave, and those who rejoin. The net payroll data is provisional as the data generation process is ongoing.