EPFO’s latest provisional payroll data, released on 24 March 2024, reveals a significant addition of 16.02 lakh new members in January 2024. Among these, approximately 8.08 lakh individuals freshly enrolled during the same month. Notably, the data underscores a predominant presence of the 18-25 age bracket, comprising 56.41 percent of the new members, indicating a surge in youth employment, particularly among first-time job seekers.
Further analysis of the data indicates that around 12.17 lakh members exited and later re-joined EPFO, typically due to job changes, opting to transfer their accumulated funds instead of settling, thus ensuring long-term financial stability and extending social security coverage.
Gender-wise breakdown shows that out of the 8.08 lakh new members, approximately 2.05 lakh are female, with a net addition of around 3.03 lakh female members during the month. This suggests a progressive move towards a more inclusive workforce.
Comparing data across different industries reveals growth in membership particularly in sectors such as financial establishments, manufacturing, computer services, and hospitals. Notably, around 40.71 percent of the total net membership comes from expert services, including manpower suppliers, contractors, security services, among others.
It’s important to note that this payroll data is provisional, as the process of updating employee records is ongoing. EPFO has been regularly releasing monthly payroll data since April 2018, covering the period from September 2017 onwards. The data encompasses new member enrollments, existing members exiting, and those re-joining, using Aadhaar-validated Universal Account Numbers (UAN) to calculate the net monthly payroll.
