EPFO adds 1.28 mn net new subscribers in June amid COVID-19

The retirement fund body Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) registered net new enrolments of 12.83 lakh in the month of June, giving employment outlook in the country. 

The provisional payroll data of the retirement fund body released on Friday underlines a rising trend with 12.83 lakh net (payroll) addition against April and May, a labour ministry statement said. 

The impact of the second wave of the COVID-19 ebbed during June, leading to enormous growth in net payroll additions as against April and May, it added. There was an increase of 5.09 lakh additions in net subscribers in June as compared to May, the ministry stated.

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Of the total 12.83 lakh net subscribers added in June, around 8.11 lakh have come under the social security coverage of the Employees' Provident Fund scheme for the first time.

During the month, around 4.73 lakh net subscribers exited but rejoined EPFO by changing jobs within the establishments covered by EPFO.

This shows that the majority of subscribers opted to continue their membership with EPFO, using transferring of funds from the previous job to the current PF account rather than applying for final withdrawal of their PF accumulations, it explained.

The age group of 18-25 registered the highest number of net enrolments with around 6.15 lakh additions, which is 47.89 per cent of total net additions during June.

This is followed by the age group of 29-35 with around 2.55 lakh net payroll addition, it stated.

Age-wise payroll data indicates that many first-time job seekers are joining the organised sector workforce in large numbers, it noted.

Gender-wise analysis shows that net female addition during the month stood at 2.56 lakh, which is around 0.79 lakh more than those added during May, it said.

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Maharashtra, Haryana, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are still at the forefront of payroll addition with approximately 7.78 lakh subscribers adding during the month. This is around 60.61 per cent of total net payroll addition across all age groups.

Industry-wise payroll data indicates that the expert services' category (consisting of manpower agencies, private security agencies and small contractors etc.) constitutes 41.84 per cent of total subscribers added during the month.

A month-on-month growing trend in net subscription was noticed for industries like trading-commercial establishments, engineering products, building & construction, textiles, garment making, hospitals and financing establishments.

The payroll data is provisional since the data generation is a continuous exercise as updation of employee record is a continuous process.

The previous data hence gets updated every month. From May-2018, EPFO has been releasing payroll data covering the period September 2017 onwards.

EPFO provides provident fund, pension benefits to the members on their retirement and family pension & insurance benefits to their families in case of the untimely death of the member.

EPFO is the country's principal organization responsible for providing social security benefits to the organized/semi-organised sector workforce covered under the statute of EPF & MP Act, 1952.

(With inputs from PTI.)