The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has added 14.86 lakh net members in January 2023, official data show. Of the 14.86 lakh members added during the month, around 7.77 lakh new members have come under ambit of the EPFO for the first time.
The EPFO is a social security organisation responsible for providing social security benefits in the form of provident, pension and insurance funds to the organised workforce of the country covered under the provisions of Employees’ Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952.
Since April 2018, the EPFO has been releasing payroll data covering the period September 2017 onwards. In monthly payroll data, the count of members joining the EPFO for the first time through Aadhaar-validated Universal Account Number (UAN), existing members exiting from coverage of the EPFO and those who exited but re-joining as members is taken to arrive at net monthly payroll.
Age-wise breakup
Among the newly joined members, the highest enrolment is registered in the age-group of 18-21 years, with 2.26 lakh members, followed by the age-group of 22-25 years with 2.06 lakh members. The age-groups of 18-25 years constitutes 55.52% of total of new members during the month. This indicates that majority of the members are first-time job seekers joining organised sector workforce of the country. For January 2023, only 3.54 lakh members have exited the fold of the EPFO. This is the lowest exit in the last four months.
See also: How to view and download your EPF passbook?
Gender-wise breakup
 The January data also highlights that approximately 10.62 lakh members re-joined the EPFO membership. These members switched their jobs and re-joined the establishments covered under the EPFO and opted to transfer their accumulations instead of applying for final settlement thus, extending their social security protection.
Gender-wise analysis of payroll data reflects that enrolment of net female members has been 2.87 lakh in January 2023, of which around 1.97 lakh members are the new joinees. This shows that 68.61% of the net female members have come under the fold of the EPFO for the first time.
State-wise breakup
State-wise payroll figures highlight that month-on-month growing trend in net member addition is reflected in Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, etc. In terms of net member addition, top 5 states are Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Delhi. These states together added 58.85% of net member addition during the month. Of all the states, Maharashtra is leading by adding 22.73% of overall member addition followed by the state of Karnataka with 10.58% during the month.
Sector-wise data
The classification of industry-wise payroll data indicates that ‘Expert Services’ (consisting of manpower suppliers, normal contractors, security services, miscellaneous activities, etc.) constitute 40.64% of total member addition during the month. Comparing industry-wise data with that of previous month, higher enrolments have been noticed in industries namely, ‘automobile servicing’, ‘banks other than nationalised banks, ‘restaurant’, ‘tea plantation’, etc.
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