Women participation in organised workforce registers rise

Female participation in the organised workforce has recorded a rise in the month of August as net membership of women in organised workforce has increased by 22.60 per cent in August 2022 as compared with the corresponding period last year.

The provisional payroll data of EPFO released on Thursday showed an increase of 14.40 per cent in net membership addition in August 2022 as compared to the corresponding month during last year in 2021. Employee provident fund organisation has added 16.94 lakh net members in the month of August 2022.

Of the total 16.94 lakh members added during the month, around 9.87 lakh new members have come under the ambit of EPFO for the first time. Out of 9.87 lakh new members added, approximately 58.32 per cent are from the age-group of 18-25 years of age.

This age-group signifies a crucial stage for an individual's potential in terms of earning capacity and joining organised workforce in large numbers following their education.

The data shows that during the month, approximately 7.07 lakh net members exited but rejoined EPFO by changing their jobs within the establishments covered by EPFO and opted to transfer their funds from previous PF account to the current account instead of submitting claims for final settlement. This may be attributed to various e-initiatives taken by EPFO for seamless and uninterrupted service delivery.

Gender-wise analysis of payroll data indicates that enrolment of net female members has been 3.63 lakh in August, 2022.

State-wise payroll figures highlighted that month-on-month growing trend in net member addition was observed in states of Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar etc. During the month, the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Gujarat and Delhi continue to remain in lead by adding approximately 11.25 lakh net members during the month, which is 66.44 per cent of the total net payroll addition across all age groups.

The classification of industry-wise payroll data indicates that mainly two categories including 'Expert services' (consisting of manpower agencies, private security agencies and small contractors etc.) and 'Trading-Commercial establishments' constitute 47.03 per cent of total member addition during the month.

Comparing industry-wise data with that of previous month, higher enrolments have been noticed in industries namely, 'Electrical, Mechanical or General Engineering Products', 'Electronic Media Companies in Private Sector', 'University', 'Financing Establishment', etc.