EPFO enrolls 1.9 million net members in April, increase of 31% from March

55% new members added in April 2024 are of the 18-25 age group

Retirement body EPFO enrolled 1.9 million net members in the month of April this year, registering over 31 per cent jump from the previous month’s count, according to provisional payroll data released on Thursday.

“An increase of 31.29 per cent has been registered in net member addition during the current month as compared to the previous month of March 2024,” said the labour ministry in a statement. Around 887,000 new members had enrolled in April 2024.

A noticeable aspect of the data is the dominance of the 18-25 age group, constituting a significant 55.50 per cent of the total new members added in April 2024.

 

“This is in consonance with the earlier trend which indicates that most individuals joining the organised workforce are youth, primarily first-time job seekers. 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 programs,” the statement by the labour ministry said.

The payroll data highlights that approximately 1.45 million members exited and subsequently re-joined 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 unveils that out of 887,000 new members added in March, around 249,000 are new female members.

Also, the net female member addition during the month stood at around 391,000, reflecting an increase of approximately 35.06 per cent compared to the previous month of March 2024.

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 highest in the five states/ UTs of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Haryana. These states constitute around 58.30 per cent of net member addition, adding a total of 1.1 million net members during the month. 

“The above payroll data is provisional since the data generation is a continuous exercise, as updating employee records 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. 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," the statement by labour ministry also said.