EPFO adds 16.30 lakh members in May

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation in May fell marginally to 1.63 million compared to 1.68 million added in May last year, though the number of new employees added to EPFO were highest in the last six months at 0.88 million. The social security organisation also witnessed a month-on-month decline of 5.2% in May when compared to 1.72 million net new subscriber addition registered in April, shows the provisional payroll data released by the labour ministry on Thursday.

Of the 1.63 million workers added in May, around 1.14 million members exited but rejoined EPFO and opted to transfer their accumulations instead of applying for final settlement, thus extending their social security protection, it said. Further, 56.4% of the net new workers or 0.88 million were new joinees in the 18-25 years age bracket.

“This indicates an increasing trend in youth employment, who are mostly first-time job seekers, joining the organized sector workforce of the country,” the ministry said. Gender-wise analysis of payroll data shows that out of total 0.88 million new members added during the month, around 0.22 million are new female members, joining EPFO for the first time while the net female member addition under EPFO stood at 0.31 million.

State-wise analysis of payroll data shows Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Haryana and Gujarat are the top five states in terms of net member addition. These five states together added 0.94 million net members or 57.8% of the total addition during the month.

Of all the states, Maharashtra alone has added 19.3% of net members during the month. Month-on-month comparison of industry-wise data reveals significant growth in net new addition of formal workers in the establishments engaged in the building