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.
A statement from the labour ministry stated that the month of September 2023 saw an enrollment of about 8.92 lakh new members, reported PTI. Among these new members, about 58.92 per cent of overall new members belonged to the age group of 18 to 25 years. This indicated that youth formed the majority of the members joining the organised sector.
Further, the data revealed that about 11.93 lakh members exited but rejoined EPFO. It explained, “These members switched their jobs and re-joined the establishments covered under the ambit of EPFO and opted to transfer their accumulations instead of applying for final settlement thus, extending their social security protection.”
Against the previous month, overall exits dipped by 12.17 per cent, 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.
The state-wise readings of the data indicated that net member addition stood the highest in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat, and Haryana. Combined, these states represented about 57.42 per cent of net member addition, coming up to a total of 9.88 lakh members during the reviewing period. Amongst the states, Maharashtra led in net member addition, by adding 20.42 per cent of members during the month.
A month-on-month comparison of the industry-based data showed major growth in the members employed in firms engaged in the sugar industry, courier services, iron and steel, hospitals, travel agencies, etc. Out of the total net membership, about 41.46 per cent addition came from expert services, including manpower suppliers, security services, normal contractors, etc.
Notably, EPFO started releasing payroll data from April 2018 and covered the period from September 2017 onwards. For the monthly payroll data, the number of members joining EPFO for the first time via a validated Universal Account Number (UAN), existing members leaving coverage, and those who rejoined after exiting, are all considered to come up with the net monthly payroll data. The data above is provisional as the process of data generation is a continuous one.
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