EPFO data yet to stabilise, remains 'provisional' in nature

More than a year on, doubts over reliability for mapping jobs

Even after over one year, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO)’s payroll data — cited by the government to map employment — has not yet stabilised and still remains “provisional” in nature, raising doubts over its reliability as a dataset for estimating employment.

The EPFO began releasing the net payroll estimates in April this year for the period starting September 2017. Since then, the EPFO has been releasing the data every month. The latest estimate, released on Saturday, showed the payroll numbers for September 2017 has been revised.

In fact, the net payroll estimates for September 2017 saw