Retirement fund body EPFO recorded a net addition of 15.62 lakh members in December 2023, according to payroll data released on Tuesday.

An increase of 11.97 per cent has been registered in net member addition during December 2023 compared to the previous month, a labour ministry statement said.

Employees' Provident Fund Organisation's provisional payroll data highlighted that the net addition of 15.62 lakh members was up by 4.62 per cent compared to December 2022, it stated.

This surge in membership can be attributed to various factors, including increased employment opportunities, a growing awareness of employee benefits, and the effectiveness of EPFO's outreach programmes, it explained.

The data showed that around 8.41 lakh new members were enrolled in December 2023, up by 14.21 per cent compared with the previous month of November 2023.

A noticeable aspect of the data is the dominance of the 18-25 age group, constituting a significant 57.18 per cent of the total new members added in December, it stated.

These statistics underscore a notable trend - the majority of individuals joining the organized workforce are youth, primarily first-time job seekers.

The payroll data highlighted that approximately 12.02 lakh members exited and subsequently rejoined EPFO.

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 showed that out of 8.41 lakh new members, around 2.09 lakh are female members, up by 7.57 per cent compared with the previous month of November 2023.

Also, the net female member addition during the month stood at around 2.90 lakh reflecting an increase of approximately 3.54 per cent compared to the previous month.

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

State-wise analysis of payroll data denotes that net member addition is the highest in the five states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Haryana.

These states constitute around 58.33 per cent of net member addition, adding a total of 9.11 lakh net members during the month.

Of the states, Maharashtra is leading by adding 21.63 per cent of net members during the month.

Month-on-month comparison of industry-wise data displays significant growth in the members working in establishments engaged in the industries viz.

Iron and Steel, Building & construction, General Insurance etc. Of the total net membership, around 40.66 per cent addition is from expert services (consisting of manpower suppliers, normal contractors, security services, miscellaneous activities etc.).

The above payroll data is provisional since the data generation is a continuous exercise, as updating employee record is a continuous process. The previous data hence gets updated every month.

From the month of April-2018, EPFO has been releasing payroll data covering the period September, 2017 onwards.

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