The Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) has released its provisional payroll data for March 2025, reporting a net addition of 14.58 lakh members. This marks a year-on-year increase of 1.15% compared to March 2024, highlighting a steady rise in formal employment and growing awareness about social security benefits among the workforce.
The data reveals that EPFO enrolled approximately 7.54 lakh new subscribers in March 2025, a 2.03% increase over February 2025 and a 0.98% rise compared to March last year. This growth is attributed to improving employment opportunities and increased awareness of EPFO’s benefits among workers entering the organized sector.
A significant observation from the report is the continued dominance of the 18–25 age group in new registrations. Around 4.45 lakh new members in this category joined EPFO in March, accounting for nearly 59% of all new subscribers for the month. Compared to February 2025, this marks a 4.21% increase, while on a year-over-year basis, this group has grown by 4.73%. The net payroll addition for the same age bracket stands at around 6.68 lakh, indicating a 6.49% increase from March 2024. These numbers reaffirm the trend that most individuals joining the EPFO system are young first-time job seekers entering the formal workforce.
In addition to new joiners, the data highlights a strong return of members to the EPFO fold. Roughly 13.23 lakh individuals who had previously exited EPFO rejoined in March 2025. This reflects a 0.39% increase over February and a notable 12.17% increase compared to the same period last year. These members chose to transfer their provident fund accumulations rather than withdraw them, a move that not only preserves their long-term savings but also keeps them within the social security framework.
March also witnessed continued progress in gender inclusion. Around 2.08 lakh women enrolled as new EPFO members, a modest 0.18% increase over February and a 4.18% increase from March 2024. The total net addition of female members stood at approximately 2.92 lakh for the month, with year-over-year growth of 0.78%. This steady rise signals an encouraging shift towards a more inclusive and gender-balanced formal workforce.
From a regional perspective, the top five states and union territories contributed significantly to the overall net payroll addition, accounting for nearly 59.67% of the total, or about 8.70 lakh members. Maharashtra led the chart, contributing 20.24% of the total net payroll for the month. Other prominent contributors include Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Haryana, Gujarat, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Telangana, each adding over 5% to the overall total.
Industry-wise, EPFO data revealed month-on-month growth in several sectors, particularly restaurants, cement, general insurance, canteens, forwarding agencies, travel agencies, and hotels. Notably, expert services — which include manpower suppliers, contract workers, security agencies, and related services — accounted for nearly 45.59% of the total net additions.
It is important to note that EPFO’s payroll data remains provisional, as data generation is a continuous process involving monthly updates to employee records. Historical figures are often revised based on late submissions, changes to filed returns, and updates to exit dates of members.
Since April 2018, EPFO has been publishing monthly payroll data beginning from September 2017. The statistics are based on Aadhaar-validated Universal Account Numbers (UANs) and reflect net additions by accounting for new members, exits, and re-joinings to the EPFO coverage.