The Employees' Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) added 16.1 lakh members in February, recording a modest growth of 4% on year, provisional payroll data released by the Labour Ministry showed on April 21.
The states that added most members were Maharashtra, followed by Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat and Haryana.
In January 2025, the net additions were 17.89 lakh, which was significantly higher year-on-year at 11.5%. Some experts said the moderate increase in net additions reflects to an extent a loss of momentum in the formal job segment amidst uncertainties. Others have suggested to wait for further for more data.
“One month's figure doesn’t necessarily reflect a trend,” said NR Bhanurmurthy, Director, Madras School of Economics. “Only if the net addition growth stays the same over the next few months, we may say the formal job sector is experiencing a loss in momentum,” he added.
In February 2024, the net additions – calculated by considering new members joining, existing members exiting, and those who exited and re-joined the system – were up 10.9% on year.
This year, the EPFO enrolled around 7.39 lakh new subscribers in the month of February. “This addition of new subscribers can be attributed to growing employment opportunities, increased awareness of employee benefits, and EPFO's successful outreach programs,” said the Labour Ministry release.
What is noticeable about the data is the dominance of the 18-25 age group - 4.27 lakh new subscribers added - constituting a significant 57.71% of the total new subscriber addition in February 2025. “This is in consonance with the earlier trend which indicates that most individuals joining the organized workforce are youth, primarily first-time job seekers,” the release said.
Further, the net payroll addition for the age group 18-25 for February 2025 is approximately 6.78 lakh reflecting a growth of 3.01% from the previous year in February 2024, it said.
Lekha Chakraborty, Professor, NIPFP said, “It’s heartening to see the new time job seekers of 18-25 and women dominate in the growth statistics of EPFO. The employees considering the EPFO as a long-term social security measure is understandable especially when a large portion of the population employed in the organised sector hesitate to venture into pension markets for old age security.”
The data further showed that about 13.18 lakh members - who had exited earlier - rejoined EPFO in February 2025, depicting a significant 11.85% on-year growth.
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, said the ministry.
Around 2.08 lakhs new female subscribers joined EPFO in February 2025, depicting a year-on-year growth of 1.26%. The net female payroll addition during the month stood at around 3.37 lakh, a significant year-on-year growth of 9.23%.
The state-wise analysis of payroll data denotes that the top five states/ UTs constitute around 59.75% of net payroll addition, adding a total around 9.62 lakh net payroll during the month, the ministry said.
Of all the states, Maharashtra is leading by adding 20.9% of net payroll during the month. The states/UTs of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat, Haryana, Delhi, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh individually added more than 5% of the total net payroll during the month, it said.
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