EPFO adds 18.23 lakh net members in month of July 2022

The EPFO‘s provisional payroll data, which was made public on September 20, 2022, shows that in the month of July 2022, the EPFO added 18.23 lakh net members. An rise of 24.48% in net membership addition was seen in July 2022 as compared to the same month in the prior year, 2021, according to payroll statistics compared year over year.

Of the total 18.23 lakh members added during the month, around 10.58 lakh new members have come under the social security cover of EPFO for the first time. The data of new members joining EPFO has shown a growing trend since April, 2022.

Out of the 10.58 lakh newly joined members, roughly 57.69% are in the 18–25 age range. This demonstrates that first-time job searchers are entering the workforce in huge numbers after completing their schooling, and that new employment in the organised sector are primarily being filled by the country’s youth.

During the month, around 4.07 lakh members left the EPFO’s coverage area, while 11.72 lakh members left and rejoined. These members instead of opting for final settlement have decided to keep their membership through the transfer of monies. This may be ascribed to many e-initiatives implemented by EPFO to ensure continuous and seamless service delivery.

Gender-wise analysis of payroll data indicates that enrolment of net female members has been 4.06 lakh in July, 2022. Yearon-year comparison of enrolment data shows that new membership of females in organized workforce has increased by 34.84% in July, 2022 comparing with the new female membership during previous year in July, 2021.

The percentage of women in the workforce who joined EPFO during the month was 27.54%, the highest percentage in the previous 12 months. With respect to new members joining EPFO, this suggests that female involvement in the organised workforce is increasing.

State-specific payroll data shows that Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh all had a month-over-month increase in the number of net members they added. The states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Gujarat, and Delhi maintained their position as leaders throughout the month by adding almost 12.46 lakh net members, or 68.36% of the total net payroll addition across all age categories.

The classification of industry-wise payroll data indicates that mainly two categories i.e. ‘expert services’ (consisting of manpower agencies, private security agencies and small contractors etc.) and ‘Trading-Commercial establishments’ constitute 46.20% of total member addition during the month. Comparing industry-wise data with that of previous month, higher enrolments have been noticed in industries namely, ‘Schools’, ‘Building & Construction Industry’, ‘Financing Establishment’ etc.

Given that updating personnel records is a continual operation, the payroll data is provisional as a result of ongoing data creation. As a result, monthly updates are made to the historical data. Payroll information for the months of September 2017 through April 2018 has been made public by EPFO. Net monthly payroll is calculated using 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 leave but later re-join.

With the wide usage of smartphones nowadays, EPFO has extended its services through mobile governance also. EPFO is now also available on Twitter, WhatsApp and Facebook to help the members.