The provisional payroll data of Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) released today, highlights that EPFO has added 14.93 lakh net members in the month of December, 2022. Year-on-year comparison of payroll data reflects an increase of 32,635 in net membership addition in December, 2022 as compared to the corresponding month during last year in 2021.

Out of 14.93 lakh members added during the month, around 8.02 lakh new members have come under the social security coverage of EPFO for the first time. Among the newly joined members, highest enrolment is registered in the age-group of 18-21 years with 2.39 lakh members, followed by the age-group of 22-25 years with 2.08 lakh members. The age-groups of 18-25 years constitutes 55.64% of total of new members during the month. This indicates that majority of the members joining EPFO are first-time job seekers who are joining organised sector workforce of the country.

The data also highlights that approximately 3.84 lakh members exited while 10.74 lakh members exited and re-joined EPFO membership. 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 indicates that enrolment of new female members has been 2.05 lakh in December, 2022. The percentage of new female member among the total new joinees has increased from 25.14% in November 2022 to 25.57% during the current month. Social security cover under the Employees’ Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 has been extended to these female members for the first time.

State-wise payroll figures highlight that top five states in terms of net member addition are Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Karnataka, Haryana. These states together added 60.08% of net member addition during the month. Of all the states, Maharashtra is leading by adding 24.82% of overall member addition followed by the state of Tamil Nadu with 10.08% during the month.

The classification of industry-wise payroll data indicates that ‘Expert Services’ (consisting of manpower suppliers, normal contractors, security services, miscellaneous activities etc.) constitute 38.22% of total member addition during the month. Comparing industry-wise data with that of previous month, higher enrolments have been noticed in industries namely, ‘financing establishment’, ‘beedi making’, ‘trading - commercial establishments’, ‘travel agencies’ etc.

The payroll data is provisional since the data generation is a continuous exercise, as updating employee record is a continuous process. The previous data hence gets updated every month. From the month of April-2018, EPFO has been releasing payroll data covering the period September, 2017 onwards. In monthly payroll data, the count of members joining EPFO for the first time through Aadhaar validated Universal Account Number (UAN), existing members exiting from coverage of EPFO and those who exited but re-joining as members, is taken to arrive at net monthly payroll.

EPFO is committed to extend social security benefits in the form of Provident, Pension and Insurance Funds to the organized workforce of the country covered under the purview of Employees’ Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952.

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MJPS/SSV