EPFO adds 16.26 lakh Net Members in Month of Nov 2022

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) today released its provisional payroll data, which shows that in the month of November 2022, EPFO added 16.26 lakh net members.

The data indicates an increase of 25.67% net additions compared to previous month in October, 2022. Year-on-year comparison of payroll data reflects an increase of 16.50% in net membership addition in November, 2022 as compared to the corresponding month during last year in 2021.

Around 8.99 lakh of the 16.26 lakh new members who joined during the month did so for the first time, bringing the total number of new members joining EPFO up by 1.71 lakh from the 7.28 lakh who joined in October 2022. The age group of 18 to 21 years has the highest enrollment rate among the new members with 2.77 lakh members, followed by the age group of 22 to 25 years with 2.32 lakh members. Age groups between 18 and 25 make up 56.60% of all new members during the month. This demonstrates that many first-time job seekers are joining the nation’s workforce in the organised sector.

The data also shows that roughly 11.21 lakh members re-joined EPFO. These members decided to transfer their accumulations rather than apply for final settlement when they changed jobs and re-joined EPFO-covered establishments, thereby extending their social security coverage.

An analysis of payroll data by gender reveals that 3.19 lakh net female members were enrolled as of November 2022. From 2.63 lakh in October 2022, the net addition of female members has increased by about 0.56 lakh from the previous month. The net membership of women in the organised workforce increased by 7.90% in November 2022 when compared to the net female membership in the same month the year before, in November 2021, according to enrollment data.

State-specific payroll data shows that Gujarat, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan are showing a growing trend in net member addition month over month. Together, these states contribute 58.23% of the month’s total net membership. Maharashtra is leading all the states in terms of overall member addition with 20%, followed by Tamil Nadu with 10.91% during the month.

According to the classification of payroll data by industry, 40% of the total number of new members during the month were added in the category of “Expert Services,” which includes manpower suppliers, regular contractors, security services, and other unrelated activities. Higher enrollments have been observed in certain industries, including “automobile servicing,” “building and construction industry,” “engineers-engg. contractors,” “financing establishment,” “hospitals,” etc., when comparing industry-specific data with that of the previous month.

The payroll data is provisional because it is generated continuously as part of the ongoing process of updating employee records. As a result, the historical data is updated each month. The EPFO began releasing payroll information in April 2018 for the period beginning in September 2017. To calculate the net monthly payroll, the number of new members who join EPFO using an Aadhaar-validated Universal Account Number (UAN), the number of current members who leave EPFO’s coverage, and the number of former members who re-join as members are all counted.

EPFO is India’s principal organisation responsible for social security coverage to the organised sector workforce covered under the purview of Employees’ Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952.