Net EPFO subscribers in FY24 jump; check out the big numbers

In what is deemed as a bg improvement in India’s jobs situation, it has been reported that the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has logged over 19% growth in net subscribers (year-on-year) to 1.65 crore members in 2023-24. This is as per the latest payroll data. Notably, over the previous years, there have been a number of ups and downs registered by the retirement funds body. For instance, the addition of 61.12 lakh net subscribers was reported in 2018-19, which then shot up to 78.58 lakh in 2019-20, but reversed a bit to 77.08 lakh in 2020-21. The last being due to the impact of Covid-19 pandemic.

There have been significant improvements across a number of metrics including net EPFO subscribers.

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However, it improved massively to 1.22 crore in 2021-22 and further jumped to 1.38 crore in 2022-23. The net subscribers addition by EPFO jumped in excess of 19 per cent to 1.65 crore in 2023-24, PTI reported, quoting an official in the know.

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Some other statistics are painting a better picture for the future too. According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data for the last six years, there is an improving trend seen in labour participation rate and worker population ratio. Moreover, this signals a number of favorable indicators: a drop in unemployment figures, an upswing in markers of female and youth employment, alongside those reflective of educational attainment.

The PLFS, done by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), is where India officially gets its job and unemployment numbers from.

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The yearly PLFS report shows things getting better from 2017-18 to 2022-23 for how many people are working, how many are looking for work, and how many can't find a job among those who are 15 or older. They said the percentage of people working (worker population ratio) went up from 46.8% in 2017-18 to 56% in 2022-23.

Also showing significant imporvements was the labour force participation. It has improved from 49.8 per cent in 2017-18 to 57.9 per cent in 2022-23.

And as far as the unemployment rate is concerned, then this metric has dropped from 6 per cent in 2017-18 to a low of 3.2 per cent in 2022-23, the official indicated.

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