35.3L new payrolls generated from September-February

The NITI Aayog on Thursday claimed that 35.3 lakh new payrolls were generated between September 2017 and February 2018 from the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), and the Pension fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA).

As per the monthly payroll data, 31.10 lakh new additions were made to the EPFO across all age groups in the payroll. Given that the data for recent months is provisional due to continuous updating of employee records, the NITI Aayog said the data could be called a conservative estimate.

From the PFRDA, the New Pension Scheme (NPS) data indicated the generation of 4.2 lakh new payroll during the given period, only from Tier-I account. NPS currently manages the corpus of around 50 lakh employees in State and Central government, thus totaling to 35.3 lakh new jobs.

In addition, the ESIC data also mirrored the payroll growth shown in the two sets of data from EPFO and PFRDA.

India has, for the first time, introduced monthly payroll reporting for the formal sector to facilitate analysis of new and continuing employment. The numbers from these three organisations are to put an end to all speculations and conjectures regarding job creation in the economy.

On a related note, payroll data from these three organisations would now be released every month, the NITI Aayog said.

The government's think tank also said other organisations such as the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), Bar Council, Medical Council and other professional bodies could have such monthly data for payroll reporting for their professionals.