The Employees' Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) has released provisional payroll data for April 2025, revealing a net addition of 19.14 lakh members. This figure depicts a significant increase of 31.31% over March 2025. The year-on-year analysis reveals an increase of 1.17 % in net payroll additions compared to April 2024, signifying increased employment opportunities and heightened awareness of employee benefits, bolstered by EPFO’s effective outreach initiatives.

Key highlights of the EPFO Payroll Data (April 2025) are as follows:

New Subscribers:

EPFO enrolled around 8.49 lakh new subscribers in April 2025, representing a 12.49 % increase over March 2025. This increase in new subscribers can be attributed to growing employment opportunities, increased awareness of employee benefits, and EPFO's successful outreach programs.

Age Group 18-25 Leads Payroll Addition:

A noticeable aspect of the data is the dominance of the 18-25 age group. EPFO added 4.89 lakh new subscribers in the 18-25 age group, constituting a significant 57.67 % of the total new subscribers added in April 2025. New subscribers in the 18-25 age group added in the month show an increase of 10.05 % compared to the previous month of March 2025.

Further, the net payroll addition for the age group 18-25 for April 2025 is approximately 7.58 lakh reflecting an increase of 13.60 % from the previous month in March 2025. This is in consonance with the earlier trend which indicates that most individuals joining the organized workforce are youth, primarily first-time job seekers.

Rejoined Members:

Approximately 15.77 lakh members, who had exited earlier, rejoined EPFO in April 2025. This figure depicts a 19.19 % increase over March 2025. It also shows an 8.56 % year-over-year growth compared to April 2024. These members switched their jobs and re-joined the establishments covered under the ambit of EPFO and opted to transfer their accumulations instead of applying for final settlement thus safeguarding long-term financial well-being and extending their social security protection.

Growth in Female Membership:

Around 2.45 lakhs new female subscribers joined EPFO in April 2025. It reflects an increase of 17.63 % compared to the previous month of March 2025.

Further, the net female payroll addition during the month stood at around 3.95 lakh, with a significant month on month increase of 35.24 % compared to March 2025. The growth in female member additions is indicative of a broader shift towards a more inclusive and diverse workforce.

State-wise Contribution:

State-wise analysis of payroll data denotes that the top five states/ UTs constitute around 60.10% of net payroll addition, adding a total around 11.50 lakh net payroll during the month. Of all the states, Maharashtra is leading by adding 21.12% of net payroll during the month. The states/UTs of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana individually added more than 5% of the total net payroll during the month.

Industry-wise Trends:

Month-on-month comparison of industry-wise data displays significant growth in the net payroll addition working in establishments engaged in the industries viz.

1. EXPERT SERVICES
2. OTHERS
3. TRADING - COMMERCIAL ESTABLISHMENTS
4. ENGINEERS - ENGG. CONTRACTORS
5. BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY
6. ESTABLISHMENT ENGAGED IN MANUFACTURE, MARKETING SERVICING, USAGE OF COMPUTERS
7. SCHOOL.

Of the total net payroll addition in the month of April 2025, around 43.69% is from expert services, out of which manpower suppliers constitute around 50%. Further, segregation of expert services is as follows:

The above payroll data is provisional since data generation is a continuous exercise, as updating employee record is a continuous process. The previous data gets updated every month on account of:

1. ECRs being filed for previous months after generation of payroll report.
2. ECRs filed earlier being modified after generation of payroll reports.
3. Date of exit from EPF membership for previous months being updated after generation of payroll report.

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-joined as members, is taken to arrive at net monthly payroll.

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Manish Gautam/Divyanshu kumar/Anjelina Alexander