EPFO adds 14 lakh subscribers in November 2021

Formal job creation in India rose 25.65% month-on-month in November 2021 as the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) added 13.95 lakh net subscribers, registering an increase of around 2.85 lakh additions over the previous month.

On a year-on-year basis, job creation surged 37.9%, clocking an increase of around 3.84 lakh in net payroll additions in November 2021 as compared to 10.11 lakh net subscribers added during the year-ago period.

Of the total 13.95 lakh net subscribers added during the month, 8.28 lakh new members have come under the social security cover of EPFO for the first time, the retirement fund body says.

Around 5.67 lakh net subscribers exited but rejoined EPFO by changing jobs within the establishments covered under the purview of EPF & MP Act, 1952, it says. The subscribers opted to continue their membership with EPFO by transferring their PF accumulations from previous to present PF account instead of applying for final withdrawal.

The age group of 22-25 years registered the highest number of net enrolments with 3.64 lakh additions while the 18-21 years age group clocked around 2.81 lakh net enrolments, the payroll data shows. The age group of 18-25 years contributed around 46.20% of total net subscriber.

Members of these age-groups are usually freshers, entering into the job market following their education.

According to payroll figures, states like Maharashtra, Haryana, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka led in creation of formal jobs by adding about 8.46 lakh subscribers during the month, which is around 60.6% of total net payroll addition across all age groups.

Net share of female subscribers in November rose 24.97% month-on-month to 2.95 lakh, almost 59,005 more than that of subscribers added during the previous month when 2.36 lakh females participated in the organised workforce, shows the gender-wise analysis of the payroll data.

Industry-wise data indicates that the ‘expert services’ category (consisting of manpower agencies, private security agencies and small contractors etc.) constitutes 41.48% of total subscriber addition during the month. In addition, a growing trend in net payroll additions has been noted in industries like building and construction industry, textiles, schools, restaurants, cement etc.

EPFO said payroll data is provisional as updation of employees’ records is a continuous process. The previous data hence gets updated every month.

Meanwhile, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) pegs the country’s employment rate at 38%. “While the global rate was 55% in the pandemic-hit 2020, India recorded a low of 43%,” its CEO Mahesh Vyas says in a report while citing World Bank data. “Only the Middle-east and North Africa by World Bank classification have a lower employment rate than India. The employment rate in Bangladesh is 53%, in China it is 63% and in Pakistan it is 48%.”