Retirement fund body EPFO adds 17.89 lakh members in June 2023; highest enrollment since August 2022

livemint.com:

Retirement fund body EPFO has added 17.89 lakh members on a net basis in June 2023, a labour ministry statement said on Sunday. The data reveals that 3,491 establishments have extended social security coverage of EPFO to their employees by remitting their first ECR during the month. Month-on-month comparison of payroll data shows a growing trend in enrollment with an increase of around 9.71% net members over the previous month of May, 2023.

The overall remittance also testifies to the highest numbers in the last eleven months, since August, 2022, the ministry statement stated. The data indicates that around 10.14 lakh new members have enrolled during June, 2023 which is the highest since August, 2022. Among the newly joined members, the age group of 18-25 years constitutes 57.87% of the total new members added during the month.

This demonstrates an increasing trend in youth enrollment, who are mostly first-time job seekers joining the organized sector workforce of the country. Payroll data suggests that approximately 12.65 lakh members exited but rejoined EPFO. These members switched their jobs and re-joined the establishments covered under EPFO and opted to transfer their accumulations instead of applying for final settlement thus, extending their social security protection.

Gender-wise analysis of payroll data represents that out of the total 10.14 lakh new members added during the month, around 2.81 lakh are new female members, joining EPFO for the first time. The percentage of new female members joining the organized workforce has been highest in the last 11 months. Also, the net female member addition during the month stood at around 3.93 lakh, which is also the highest since August, 2022.