EPFO data shows 1 million new jobs in July, highest in 10 months
21 Sep 2018
The organised sector in India added a million jobs in July this year, the highest for a month since September last year, new payroll data prepared by the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) showed.
The EPFO made available the first employment data based on payrolls in September last year.
The new data, which was placed on the EPFO’s website on Thursday, showed a revision in the monthly numbers. The number for September 2017 has been revised downwards, while for all other months it has seen an upward revision. The total fresh payroll numbers for September 2017-June 2018 have gone up to 5.23 million against 4.71 million, according to the estimate released in August.
EPFO said the data for July 2018 is provisional as the updation of employees’ records is a continuous process and gets updated in subsequent months, which is why both monthly and total number have been revised.
The net payroll data also gives age-wise figures of fresh jobs created in various sectors. According to the data, in the age bracket of 22-25, the top 10 sectors include export services, electric, mechanical or general engineering products, trading, engineer contractors, building and construction industry, manufacturing, textiles, hospitals, heavy-fine chemicals and cleaning business.
In this age bracket, Maharashtra was the first among the sates followed by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Haryana and Delhi besides other States and Union Territories.
The net payroll data is arrived at after subtracting the number of members exited from number of new EPF subscribers and then adding the number of exited members who rejoined and re-subscribed. EPF is managed under the aegis of Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).
It covers every establishment in which 20 or more persons are employed and in certain organisations even if they employ less than 20 persons each, subject to certain conditions and exemptions. It is a mandatory savings scheme. The pay limit is Rs15,000 per month. Persons drawing pay above Rs15,000 are exempted or can be enrolled with some permission or on voluntary basis.
The number of members subscribing to this scheme gives an idea of the level of employment in the formal sector.
The pay-roll based study had estimated that around 7 million jobs might be generated in 2017-18. This has been proved correct later, as the actual enrolment based on EPFO, NPS (National Pension Scheme) and ESIC (Employee State Insurance Corporations), came out around 6.7 million.
Research has revealed that the payroll data have the most profound impact on all high frequency economic reports and major policy implications.