Recovery in formal job market pushes EPFO enrolments to 8.45 lakh in July

Delayed filing of returns and partial recovery in formal job creation pushed the net enrollments under the Employees Provident Fund scheme to 8.45 lakh in July, an all-time high so far this year but lower than the average enrollment of over 10 lakh a month. However, the newly registered workers under the Employees State Insurance scheme have seen a dip of 8.7% in July at 7,41,903 compared to 8,13,006 in June 2020.

The payroll data, released by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation on Friday, shows the members exiting the EPFO scheme fell to 3,12,744 as against 5,70,664 in June, which has been revised upwards while those who rejoined the scheme stood at 5,47,755 compared to 5,14,659 in June.

This has resulted in net subscriber addition to EPFO in July at 8,45,232 compared to 6,55,311 in June, 1,72,000 in May and barely 20,000 in April, which was the first month of the lockdown. However, the numbers may change as companies start filing returns with the economy opening up fully. “In view of the national lockdown consequent to the COVID-19 pandemic, several establishments were closed and which may have had implications on the reporting. The reported figures are thus likely to undergo significant revision in the next few months,” Mospi said in a statement.

As per the data, the new subscribers added to ESIC stood at 741,903 in July compared to 813,006 in June, 481,863 in May and 260,160 in April with all enrollments in the previous months revised upwards. However, this is still short of pre-Covid time when the average monthly addition of new subscribers under the scheme stood at over 1.2 million in 2019-20.

Net subscribers under the National Pension Scheme have started rising with enrollments at 34,862 in July compared to an all time low of 29,155 in June, 43,888 in May and 64,647 in April. The average monthly addition under the scheme stood at over 60,000 over the last two fiscal years.