EPFO net new member additions rise 9.07% to 18.53 lakh in August

Retirement fund body EPFO's net new member additions increased 9.07 per cent to 18.53 lakh in August, compared to a year ago, according to payroll data released on Sunday.

EPFO enrolled around 9.30 lakh new members in August 2024, representing an increase of 0.48 per cent from August 2023, a labour ministry statement said.

This surge in new memberships can be attributed to growing employment opportunities, increased awareness of employee benefits, and EPFO's successful outreach programs, it stated.

According to the provisional payroll data for August 2024 released by the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), there was a net addition of 18.53 lakh members in August 2024, representing a 9.07 per cent year-on-year growth.

A noticeable aspect of the data is the dominance of the 18-25 age group, constituting a significant 59.26 per cent of the total new member additions in August 2024.

In addition, the net payroll data for the age group 18-25 for August 2024 was 8.06 lakh.

This is in consonance with the earlier trend which indicates that most individuals joining the organised workforce are youth, primarily first-time job seekers, it stated.

The payroll data highlights that approximately 13.54 lakh members exited and subsequently rejoined EPFO. This figure depicts year-over-year growth of 14.03 per cent.

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 the new members added during the month, around 2.53 lakhs are new female members. This figure exhibits year-on-year growth of 3.75 per cent.

Also, the net female member addition during the month under review stood at around 3.79 lakh. It reflects a year-on-year growth of 10.41 per cent.

The surge in female member additions is indicative of a broader shift towards a more inclusive and diverse workforce, it stated.

State-wise analysis of payroll data denotes that net member addition in the top five states/ UTs constitutes around 59.17 per cent of net member addition, adding a total around 10.97 lakh net members during August.

Of all the states, Maharashtra is leading by adding 20.59 per cent of net members during August, 2024.

The states/UTs of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Delhi, Gujarat, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh individually added more than 5 per cent of the total net members during the month.

The month-on-month comparison of industry-wise data displayed significant growth in the members working in establishments engaged in the industries viz. trading - commercial establishments, engineers - engg. contractors, building and construction industry, agriculture farms, Beedi making etc.

Of the total net membership, around 40.36 per cent addition was from expert services (consisting of manpower suppliers, normal contractors, security services, miscellaneous activities etc.

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

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-joined as members, is taken to arrive at net monthly payroll, it stated.