The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) added 19.94 lakh net members in July 2024, marking the highest recorded increase since payroll data tracking began in April 2018, Mansukh Mandavia, Union Labour Minister said on Monday.

The latest reading is up 6.3 per cent over the net member addition of 18.75 lakh that the retirement fund body witnessed in July 2023. 

In June this year, the net member enrolment under EPFO stood at 16.70 lakh.

The strong show for July 2024 came on the back of Centre’s focused capex push in recent years and enhanced coverage of production linked incentive (PLI) scheme.

Releasing EPFO’s provisional payroll data of July 2024 in the capital, Mandaviya highlighted that as many as 10.52 lakh members — out of the overall net addition of 19.94 lakh in July 2024 — were new members/first time joiners. The latest reading of new joiners was up 2.66 per cent over June 2024 and 2.43 per cent increase compared to July 2023.

“These rising numbers denote growing employment opportunities, increased awareness of employee benefits and EPFO’s successful outreach programmes,” Mandavia said. About 14.65 lakh members who had exited the system rejoined EPFO in July 2024. 

Mandavia highlighted that net payroll addition to EPFO in year 2018-19 stood at 61.12 lakh and it had more than doubled to 131.48 lakh in 2023-24.

India is currently the youngest country in the world with about 65 per cent of population below 35 years of age. The average age of India is only 29 years.

Youth Group 

He also highlighted that the youth group (18-25 age group) saw the highest ever net payroll additions at 8.77 lakh. The first timers in the youth group stood at 6.25 lakh members, reflecting 59.41 percent of the total new members added during July 2024.

“It denotes continued trend of young people, mostly first time job seekers, entering the organised workforce”, Mandavia added.

Female Membership

Mandavia said that around 3.05 lakh new female members joined EPFO in July 2024, reflecting a year-over-year growth of 10.94 per cent. In total, 4.41 lakh net female members were added, marking the highest monthly addition for women since payroll tracking began, with a 14.41 per cent increase compared to July 2023. “This indicates a shift towards a more inclusive workforce with growing female participation,” he added.

Semiconductor Mission

Describing “semiconductor” as rising sector for India, Mandavia said that government’s recent move to launch semiconductor mission will help create several employment opportunities, especially for the youth. 

“Semiconductor is a rising sector for us in India. There will be more employment opportunities as this industry flourishes in India. We are also taking care of the skilling side through ITIs,” he added.

State-wise Contribution:

Meanwhile, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, and Gujarat accounted for 59.27 per cent of the total net member additions in July 2024, collectively adding 11.82 lakh members. 

Maharashtra led among the States/UTs, contributing 20.21 per cent of the total new members.

Industry-wise Trends

Significant membership growth was seen in sectors such as manufacturing, computer services, construction, engineering, banking (non-nationalised), and private sector electronic media. 

Notably, 38.91 per cent of net additions came from expert services, including manpower suppliers, contractors, and security services, among others.

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

In monthly payroll data, the count of members joining EPFO for the first time through Aadhaar validated Universal Account Number (UAN), existing members exiting from coverage of EPFO and those who exited but re-joining as members, is taken to arrive at net monthly payroll.

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