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Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has added 18.81 lakh net members during September this year, as per provisional payroll data released on Wednesday. This represents a 9.33 per cent year-on-year growth.
EPFO enrolled around 9.47 lakh new members in September, representing an increase of 6.22 per cent in the new members from the previous year in September. The labour ministry said that this surge in new memberships can be attributed to growing employment opportunities, increased awareness of employee benefits, and EPFO 's outreach programs. A noticeable aspect of the data is the dominance of the 18-25 age group, constituting a significant 59.95 per cent of the total new members added in September. In addition, the net payroll data for the age group 18-25 for September 2024 is 8.36 lakhs, which depicts a 9.14 per cent year-on-year growth as compared to September 2023 data. "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 ministry said in a statement. Further, the payroll data showed that approximately 14.10 lakh members exited and subsequently rejoined EPFO. This figure depicts year-over-year growth of 18.19 per cent compared to September 2023. "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, out of the new members added during the month, around 2.47 lakhs are new female members, with a growth of 9.11 per cent year-on-year. Also, the net female member addition during the month stood at around 3.70 lakh, a growth of 12.11 per cent. The ministry said that the surge in female member additions is indicative of a broader shift towards a more inclusive and diverse workforce. Of all the states, Maharashtra is leading by adding 21.20 per cent of net members during the month. The states/UTs of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana individually added more than 5 per cent of the total net members during the month. Of the total net membership, around 41.69 per cent addition is from expert services (consisting of manpower suppliers, normal contractors, security services, and miscellaneous activities). (ANI)
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