EPFO net member addition rises 9.33% to 1.88 million in September

Retirement fund body EPFO logged 9.33 per cent growth in net member additions in September at 18.81 lakh compared to the year-ago month, showed payroll data released on Wednesday.

Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) enrolled around 9.47 lakh new members in September 2024, representing an increase of 6.22 per cent over September 2023, the labour ministry said.

This surge in new memberships can be attributed to growing employment opportunities, increased awareness of employee benefits and EPFO's outreach programmes, it noted.

According to the statement, EPFO has released provisional payroll data for September 2024, revealing a net addition of 18.81 lakh members.

This represents a 9.33 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth compared to September 2023, signifying increased employment opportunities and heightened awareness of employee benefits, bolstered by EPFO's effective outreach initiatives.

A noticeable aspect of the data is the dominance of the 18-25 age group, which constituted a significant 59.95 per cent of the total new members added in September 2024.

In addition, it stated that the net payroll data for the age group 18-25 for September 2024 is 8.36 lakh, which depicts a 9.14 per cent YoY growth compared to the September 2023 data.

This is in consonance with the earlier trend which indicates that most individuals joining the organised workforce are youth, primarily first-time job seekers, it pointed out.

The payroll data highlights that approximately 14.10 lakh members exited and subsequently rejoined EPFO.

This figure depicts year-on-year growth of 18.19 per cent.

Gender-wise analysis of payroll data unveils that around 2.47 lakh women were added as new members during the month, representing a 9.11 per cent YoY growth.

The net female member addition during the month stood at around 3.70 lakh, reflecting a 12 per cent YoY rise.

The surge in female member additions is indicative of a broader shift towards a more inclusive and diverse workforce.

State-wise analysis of payroll data denotes that net member addition in the top five states/ Union Territories constitutes around 59.86 per cent or 11.26 lakh during the month.

Of all states, Maharashtra was on top, adding 21.20 per cent of net members during the month.

The states/UTs of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana individually added more than 5 per cent of the total net members during the month.

Month-on-month comparison of industry-wise data displays significant growth in the members working in establishments engaged in industries like expert services, trading - commercial establishments, electrical, mechanical or engineering products, garments making, establishments engaged in cleaning, sweeping services, hospitals, financing establishments, companies/societies/Assc/clubs/troupes for performances etc.

Of the total net membership, around 41.69 per cent addition is from expert services consisting of manpower suppliers, normal contractors, security services, miscellaneous activities etc.

It stated that the payroll data is provisional since data generation is an ongoing exercise, as updating employee records is a continuous process.

In monthly payroll data, the count of members joining EPFO for the first time through Aadhaar validated Universal Account Number (UAN), existing members exiting from coverage of EPFO and those who exited but re-joined as members, is taken to arrive at net monthly payroll, it stated.