EPFO Adds 15.48 lakh Net Members In February 2024

Retirement fund body Employees' Provident Fund Organisation on Saturday said it added 15.48 lakh members on a net basis in February 2024. Around 7.78 lakh members enrolled for the first time with the EPFO during the month, a labour ministry statement said.

According to the statement, a noticeable aspect of Employees' Provident Fund Organisation’s payroll data is the dominance of the 18-25 age group, constituting a significant 56.36% of the total new members added in February 2024. The data indicates the majority of individuals joining the organised workforce are youth, primarily first-time job seekers, the labour ministry stated.

The payroll data highlights that approximately 11.78 lakh members exited and subsequently rejoined EPFO.

These members switched their jobs and re-joined the establishments covered under the ambit of EPFO and opted to transfer their accumulations instead of applying for final settlement thus, safeguarding long-term financial well-being and extending their social security protection.

Gender-wise analysis of payroll data unveiled that out of 7.78 lakh new members, around 2.05 lakh are new female members. Also, the net female member addition during the month stood at around 3.08 lakh.

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

Month-on-month comparison of industry-wise data displays growth in the members working in establishments engaged in the industries, namely, establishments engaged in manufacturing, marketing servicing and usage of computers, companies/societies/assc/clubs/troupes for performances, road motor transport, automobile servicing, textiles etc. Of the total net membership, around 41.53% addition is from expert services (consisting of manpower suppliers, normal contractors, security services, miscellaneous activities etc.).

The above payroll data is provisional since the data generation is a continuous exercise, as updating employee records is a continuous process.

The previous data hence gets updated every month.

From the month of April 2018, EPFO has been releasing payroll data covering the period from September 2017 onwards.

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