EPFO adds 1.283 million members in June amid Covid-19

Retirement fund body EPFO recorded net new enrolments of 12.83 lakh in June, giving an employment perspective in the country.

The provisional payroll data of EPFO (Employees' Provident Fund Organization) released on Friday highlights a growing trend with 12.83 lakh net payroll additions during June 2021, a labour ministry statement said.

The impact of second wave of COVID-19 waned during June, leading to tremendous growth in net payroll additions as compared to April and May, it said.

As compared to May, there was an increase of 5.09 lakh additions in net subscribers in June, it added.

Of the total 12.83 lakh net subscribers added in June, around 8.11 lakh have come under the social security coverage of Employees' Provident Fund scheme for the first time.

During the month, around 4.73 lakh net subscribers exited but rejoined EPFO by changing jobs within the establishments covered by EPFO.

This shows that majority of subscribers opted to continue their membership with EPFO, using transferring of funds from previous job to the current PF account rather than applying for final withdrawal of their PF accumulations, it explained.

The age group of 18-25 registered highest number of net enrolments with around 6.15 lakh additions, which is 47.89 per cent of total net additions during June.

This is followed by age group of 29-35 with around 2.55 lakh net payroll addition, it stated.

Age-wise payroll data indicates that many first time job seekers are joining organised sector workforce in large numbers, it said.

Gender-wise analysis shows that net female addition during the month stood at 2.56 lakh, which is around 0.79 lakh more than those added during May, it said.

Maharashtra, Haryana, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are still at the forefront of payroll addition with approximately 7.78 lakh subscribers adding during the month. This is around 60.61 per cent of total net payroll addition across all age groups.

Industry-wise payroll data indicates that expert services' category (consisting of manpower agencies, private security agencies and small contractors etc.) constitutes 41.84 per cent of total subscribers addition during the month.

Month-on-month growing trend in net subscription was noticed for industries like trading-commercial establishments, engineering products, building & construction, textiles, garment making, hospitals and financing establishments.

The payroll data is provisional since the data generation is a continuous exercise as updation of employee record is a continuous process.

The previous data hence gets updated every month. From May-2018, EPFO has been releasing payroll data covering the period September 2017 onwards.

EPFO provides provident fund, pension benefits to the members on their retirement and family pension & insurance benefits to their families in case of untimely death of the member.

EPFO is the 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.