The provisional payroll data of EPFO released on 20th May, 2023 highlights that EPFO has added 13.40 lakh net members in the month of March, 2023. During the financial year 2022-23, around 1.39 crore net members have been added by EPFO with an increase of 13.22% compared to the previous financial year 2021-22 wherein EPFO had added approximately 1.22 crore net members.

Out of 13.40 lakh members added during the month, around 7.58 lakh new members have come under ambit of EPFO for the first time. Among the newly joined members, highest enrolment is registered in the age-group of 18-21 years with 2.35 lakh members, followed by the age-group of 22-25 years with 1.94 lakh members. The age-groups of 18-25 years constitutes 56.60% of total new members added during the month. This age-wise comparison of payroll data indicates that majority of the members joining organised sector workforce of the country are first-time job seekers.

The data also highlights that approximately 10.09 lakh members 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 reflects that enrolment of net female members has been 2.57 lakh in March, 2023, which is around 19.21% of the net member addition for the month. Of these, 1.91 lakh female members are the new joinees. This is around 25.16% addition of all the new joinees.

State-wise payroll figures highlight that month-on-month growing trend in net member addition is reflected in the states of Haryana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Mizoram, etc. In terms of net member addition, top 5 states are Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Haryana and Gujarat. These states together constitute 58.68% of net member addition during the month. Of all the states, Maharashtra is leading by adding 20.63% of net members followed by the state of Tamil Nadu with 10.83% 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.) constitutes 43.72% of total member addition during the month. Comparing industry-wise data with that of previous month, higher enrolments have been noticed in industries namely, ‘expert services’, ‘hotels’, ‘medical practitioners’, ‘banks other than nationalised banks’ 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 country’s principal organization responsible for providing social security benefits to the organized/semi-organized sector workforce covered under the statute of EPF & MP Act, 1952.

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MJPS