The number of first-time members of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation fell to its lowest level in FY23 in February as firms remained cautious about fresh hiring amidst the anticipated slowdown in domestic and global economic activities.

According to the payroll data released by the EPFO on Thursday, 0.73 million first-time entrants joined the scheme in February, which is about 10% lower than 0.81 million fresh subscribers in January. Prior to this, October 2022 had recorded the lowest number of first-time entrants during the fiscal at 0.79 million.

The data, which is used as a high frequency measure for formal sector job creation in the economy, may however, be revised as has been the case with previous months as well. The number of new entrants in January was revised upwards from the provisional number of 0.77 million.

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“The age-group of 18-25 years constitutes 55.37% of total new members during the month. This indicates that a majority of the members joining the organised sector workforce of the country are first-time job seekers,” said the labour ministry in a statement.

New entrants to the EPFO have however been on a declining trend for the third consecutive month and below the 1 million mark since October 2022.

Overall, 1.39 million workers were added to the EPFO in February 2023 of which about 1.01 million workers joined the social security scheme after switching jobs and opted to transfer their accumulations instead of applying for final settlement.

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In terms of female participation, the net female member addition and new female member addition in February 2023 registered the highest proportion in the last four months. In February 2023, about 0.27 million net female members were enrolled, which was about 19.93% of the net member addition for the month. Of these, 0.18 million female members were new joinees, which was around 25.65% addition of all the new entrants.

In terms of net member addition, top five states in the month of February were Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat, Delhi, which together accounted for 58.62% of the net member addition during the month.