The first half of the ongoing financial year (H1 FY23) saw 87.1 lakh new formal jobs being created across the country, according to an analysis of the data put out by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). This is a 35 per cent increase compared to the year-ago period.

In the first halves of FY21 and FY22, 24.6 lakh and 64.72 lakh formal jobs were created in the country, respectively. EPFO’s payroll data covers organised sector workforce for establishments that employ more than 20 workers and have provident fund accounts opened for them.

In fact, Q2 FY23 saw a slight increase in formal job creation, to 47.4 lakh, compared to Q1 (39.3 lakh). In this fiscal, most jobs were created in September — 16.82 lakh.

In H1, around 25,330 new establishments started complying under the Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952, ensuring social security coverage to their employees.

Experts on demand

The disaggregated data put out by EPFO show that a major proportion of these jobs were created in the expert services sector. More than 36 lakh jobs were included in the category, which consists manpower agencies, private security agencies and small contractors. It is then followed by trading-commercial establishments and engineering.

Data also show that States with greater contribution from services such as Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu created the most formal jobs. While 18.29 lakh new formal jobs were created in Maharashtra during H1, the numbers were 9.87 lakh and 9.18 lakh in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, respectively. Among the big States, the ones that lagged behind are Himachal Pradesh (0.67 lakh new jobs), Jharkhand (0.8 lakh) and Chhattisgarh (0.84 lakh).

Also, during this period, the generation Z bagged the most formal jobs in the country — a whopping 22.8 lakh people belonged to the 22-25 years age group. On the other hand,, only 12.03 lakh people in the 26-28 years age group and 15.6 lakh people aged above 35 years found new formal jobs.

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