Are wages growing at faster rate than job creation? ESIC data unclear

Data potentially suggest that wages of existing employees grew faster than the rate of addition of new jobs or formalisation of informal ones

The payroll count provided by the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) last week failed to show any conclusive trend on job creation in the formal sector due to duplication band and various other discrepancies in the dataset.

For the first time ever, last Wednesday ESIC, along with Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), released data on provisional estimates of payroll based on its subscriptions.

While EPFO was able to paint a clearer picture of the payroll stock with Aadhaar being the unique identifier for its subscribers, the ESIC data carries with it