Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation’s (EPFO) provisional payroll data released on Saturday highlighted that it added 15.48 lakh net members in the month of February.

The data indicates that around 7.78 lakh new members have been enrolled during February 2024. A noticeable aspect of the data is the dominance of the 18-25 age group, constituting a significant 56.36 per cent of the total new members added in February 2024 indicating the majority of individuals joining the organised workforce are youth, primarily first-time job seekers.

The payroll data highlights that about 11.78 lakh members exited and subsequently rejoined the 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 unveils 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 viz. establishments engaged in the manufacture, marketing servicing & 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 per cent 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,” the Ministry of Labour & Employment said.

From the month of April 2018, EPFO has been releasing payroll data covering the period September 2017 onwards. 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-joining as members, is taken to arrive at net monthly payroll.