EPFO records highest-ever addition of 18.92 lakh net members in April

Gender-wise analysis of payroll data unveils that out of 8.87 lakh new members, around 2.49 lakh are new female members.

Retirement fund body EPFO on June 20 said it added 18.92 lakh members on a net basis in April 2024, highest ever since the first payroll data was published in April 2018.

Around 8.87 lakh members enrolled for the first time with the EPFO in April, a labour ministry statement said.

According to the statement, an increase of 31.29 percent has been registered in net member addition during the current month as compared to the previous month of March 2024. Further, the year-on-year analysis reveals a growth of 10 percent in net member additions compared to April 2023.

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"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 added.

The payroll data highlights that member in 18-25 age group constituted 55.50 percent of the total new members indicating that most individuals joining the organized workforce are youth, primarily first-time job seekers.

Moreover, approximately 14.53 lakh members exited and subsequently rejoined 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.

Gender-wise analysis of payroll data unveils that out of 8.87 lakh new members, around 2.49 lakh are new female members. Also, the net female member addition during the month stood at around 3.91 lakh.

State-wise analysis of payroll data denotes that net member addition is highest in the 5 states/ UTs of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Haryana. Of all the states, Maharashtra is leading by adding 20.42 percent of 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 from 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, it stated.