The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has added a net 1.46 million members in March, up 1.15% on year, according to the latest payroll data released on Wednesday.
The EPFO enrolled around 0.75 million new subscribers in March, 2.03% more than February and 0.98% more on-year, according to a labour ministry statement. About 1.32 million members, who had exited earlier, rejoined the EPFO in March 2025, an increase of 0.39% over February 2025 and 12.17% on-year.
This growth in new subscribers can be attributed to growing employment opportunities, increased awareness of employee benefits, and EPFO’s successful outreach programmes, it said.
As per the report, 0.44 million new subscribers were added in the 18-25 age group, constituting a significant 58.94% of the total new subscribers added in March 2025.
New subscribers in the 18-25 age group added in the month show an increase of 4.21% compared to February 2025. It also depicted a growth of 4.73% from the previous year in March 2024.
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, it stated.
Around 0.2 million new female subscribers joined EPFO in March 2025, an increase of 0.18% over the previous month and 4.18% on year, it stated.
Further, the net female payroll addition during the month under review stood at 0.29 million, up 0.78% on year, indicative of a broader shift towards a more inclusive and diverse workforce.
State-wise analysis of payroll data denotes that the top five states/ UTs constitute around 59.67% of net payroll addition, adding a total around 0.87 million net payroll during the month.
Of all the states, Maharashtra led the chart by adding 20.24% of net payroll during the month, it said.
The states/UTs of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Haryana, Gujarat, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana individually added more than 5% of the total net payroll during the month.