EPFO adds 1.1 million new first-time workers in June, highest since August 2022

Formal sector job creation saw an uptick in June with first time entrants to the Employees’ Provident Fund rising to 1.10 million, which was the highest since August 2022. In May, 0.92 million workers had joined the EPF for the first time. 

“The overall remittance also testifies the highest numbers in the last eleven months, since August, 2022,” said the ministry of labour and employment on the provisional payroll data of the EPFO.  

Significantly, the data also shows that 0.28 million first time female members joined the EPFO. The percentage of new female members joining the organised workforce has been highest in the last 11 months. Further, the net female member addition during the month stood at around 0.39 million which is also the highest since August, 2022. 

The EPFO payroll data is considered a high frequency measure for formal sector job creation in the economy. The data however, goes through revisions.  

While new entrants to the EPFO had been above the 1 million mark in months in the first half of the fiscal 2022-23, they had tapered off from October 2022 and had remained less than 1 million ever since.  As many as 1.06 million new workers had joined the EPF in August 2022, which was the previous high. Another 1.01 million members had joined the retirement fund scheme in September. 

Among the newly joined members, the age-group of 18-25 years constitutes 57.87% of 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,” said the ministry.  

In all, the EPFO has added 1.78 million net members in the month of June, 2023. The data suggests that approximately 1.26 million 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,” said the ministry. 

The data reveals that 3,491 establishments have extended social security cover of EPFO to their employees by remitting their first Electronic Challan cum Receipt during the month.