Fresh subscriptions to the schemes run by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) rose for the second consecutive month in December, indicating a steady pace in formalisation of jobs, if not creation of new jobs. As against 8.73 lakh in November and 8.18 lakh in October, fresh EPFO subscriptions in December stood at 9.11 lakh, as per the retirement fund body’s payroll data.
First-time enrolment, which may not necessarily mean new jobs, under the scheme had been the highest in August this fiscal, at close to 10 lakh. December 2021 also saw the highest monthly net addition of subscribers to the scheme so far in the current fiscal at 14.6 lakh.
In November, the EPFO added 12.17 lakh net subscribers.The EPFO’s latest payroll data, however, does not seem to be in sync with the unemployment numbers released by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). The country’s overall unemployment rate, according to CMIE, was at a four-month high of 7.91% in December.
“In December 2021, employment was at 406 million. This was 2.9 million less compared to the employment in 2019-20. The shortfall was not evenly spread at all. The biggest fall in employment was in salaried employees. This class saw a loss of 9.5 million jobs. Another 1 million jobs were lost among entrepreneurs,” CMIE’s MD & CEO Mahesh Vyas, wrote in a recent article.However, as per the EPFO’s own admission, “The payroll data is provisional since the data generation is a continuous exercise. The previous data hence gets updated every month.”
In a statement, issued Sunday, the labour ministry said, “Age-wise comparison of payroll data shows that the age-group of 22-25 years has registered highest number of net enrolments with 3.87 lakh additions during December, 2021. Age-group of 18-21 also registered a healthy addition of around 2.97 lakh net enrolments. Age-group of 18-25 years have contributed around 46.89% of total net subscriber additions in December 2021. This indicates that many first-time job seekers are joining the organised sector workforce in large numbers.”
According to the statement, 61.44% of total net payroll addition across all age groups were from five states — Maharashtra, Haryana, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Females constitute just 20.52% of the total net subscribers.
“Industry-wise payroll data indicates that ‘expert services’ category (consisting of manpower agencies, private security agencies and small contractors etc) constitutes 40.24% of total subscriber addition during the month. In addition, a growing trend in net payroll additions has been noted in industries like the building & construction industry, textiles, restaurants, iron & steel, etc,” it said.
The EPFO is applicable to every establishment in which 20 or more persons are employed. The pay ceiling is Rs 15,000 per month. The EPFO provides provident fund, pension benefits to the members on their retirement, and family pension and insurance benefits to their families in case of untimely death of the member.