EPFO data indicates 2.27 crore new jobs created between FY20-FY23

India added 4.86 crore net new subscribers to the Employee Provident Fund during FY20 to FY23, according to Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Group Chief Economic Adviser for State Bank of India. Combined with data collected from the National Pension Scheme, this number goes up to 5.2 crore during this time.

However, the EPF data consists of employees receiving their first paycheck, those rejoining the EPF subscription and formalised payrolls. After adjusting for re-joined/re-subscribed members and formalisation, the actual net new payroll came to 2.27 crore between FY20 and FY23, of which 47 per cent were first jobs, Ghosh said in SBI’s latest EcoWrap report.

During the same time period, NPS data indicated that 31 lakh new subscribers were added. It also highlighted a positive growth in payroll formalisation, which stood at 42 lakh during the period under review. This refers to the inclusion of informal workers into the EPFO for social security benefits.

In FY23, 8.24 lakh new subscribers joined the NPS, of which state government employees made the biggest chunk at 4.64 lakh, followed by private and central government employees, indicating a higher diversity in jobs.

At the same time, in Q1 of FY24 alone, 44 lakh net new EPF subscribers joined the payroll, of which 19.2 lakh were first timers. “If this trend continues for the whole fiscal then in FY24, the net new payroll crosses the 160 lakh mark (highest-ever) with first payroll in the range of 70-80 lakh,” Ghosh said in the report.

The first quarter of the current financial year also saw a significant dip in the number of members who have rejoined or resubscribed the EPF payroll, indicating that employees are preferring to stick to their current job roles for longer periods of time.

The share of women payroll during this time was 27 per cent, prompting Ghosh to make a number of recommendations to increase their participation in the workforce. This includes increasing the role of women as banking correspondents, especially those working as Bank Sakhis under the National Rural Livelihood Mission, as they already possess the necessary skills and certifications.

“Policy may also be framed to mandatorily recruit at least 30 per cent of the total workforce as women Banking Correspondents, particularly in locations where access and usage of the accounts by women is low,” Ghosh noted in the report.