Job creation recovered significantly in June as the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic ebbed, payroll data from Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) shows.
Fresh subscribers to the government's social security organisations – Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) and National Pension System grew strongly after dipping in May at the peak of the second wave, the data released on Wednesday showed.
From 7.63 lakh in April this year, new enrollments under EPFO dropped to 6.19 lakh in May but recovered sharply to 8.10 lakh in June.
Under ESIC, fresh enrolments fell from 10.68 lakh in April to 8.83 lakh in May and rebounded to 10.44 lakh in June. New subscribers under NPS had fallen from 55,844 in April to 50,566 in May before bouncing back to 78,265 in June.
Fresh enrolments under EPFO, ESIC and NPS are indicative of job creation.
While the EPF scheme is mandatory for workers not earning more than Rs. 15,000 a month in organisations having more than 20 employees, ESIC provides insurance and medical benefits to workers whose monthly wages do not exceed Rs. 21,000 in a month in establishments having 10 or more workers.
NPS is a government-sponsored pension scheme in which subscribers contribute regularly during their working life. On retirement, subscribers can withdraw a part of the corpus in a lump sum and use the remaining corpus to buy an annuity to secure a regular income after retirement.
To tide over the stress on the job market created by COVID-19, the government in 2020 announced the EPF subsidy scheme, Atmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on November 12 announced the Atmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana, aimed at incentivising the creation of new employment opportunities during the COVID-19 economic recovery phase.
The scheme is expected to provide dual benefits: Encouraging employers and business establishments to increase the number of workers, and helping a large number of job-seekers find employment in EPFO-registered establishments.
Under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana, for establishments employing up to 1,000 workers, the central government will provide employee and employer contributions of 12 percent each of the wages, thereby covering 24 percent of the wages.
For establishments employing over 1,000 workers, the government proposed to provide an EPF contribution worth 12 percent of the wages.
An employee drawing a monthly wage of less than Rs 15,000, who was not working in any establishment registered with the EPFO before October 1, 2020, will be eligible for the scheme.
On June 28, the finance minister extended the EPFO wage subsidy scheme, Aatmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana, from June 30, 2021, to March 31, 2022.
Since April 2018, MOSPI has issued employment-related statistics in the formal sector, covering the period September 2017 onwards, using the information on the number of subscribers under three major schemes – EPF, ESI and the National Pension System (NPS).
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