Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) reportedly added 15.48 lakh members on a net basis, as per the provisional payroll data. The heartening news is that out of the 7.78 lakh new members, more than two lakh were women. That means, the net women added in February was about 3.08 lakh. Clearly, this indicates that the Indian workforce is becoming more gender inclusive.
Out of the 15.48 lakh net members added to EPFO, more than half belong to the18-25 years age bracket. That means, youngsters make up more than 56.36 per cent of the new members. Of the total net membership, around 41.53 per cent were added from expert services.
As per the Labour Ministry, most of the individuals joining the organised workforce are young first-time job seekers. About 11.78 lakh members left the organisation on changing their jobs but also rejoined as they moved to organisations that are covered under EPFO. That means, these members chose to transfer their PF accumulated on switching jobs instead of closing the account and starting anew.
The number of people working for the manufacturing, marketing servicing and computer usage areas has gone up. More members have taken up jobs in companies/societies/associations/clubs/performance troupes, as well as in the textile, transport and automobile space.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the net addition to EPFO subscriptions dropped tremendously and went into negative in April-May 2020.