India has added nearly 5.2 crore new formal jobs between the financial year 2020 and 2023, according to an SBI research report. The report was based on an analysis of the Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), National Pension Scheme (NPS), and Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC). 2.7 crore new employees were added during the same period, according to the report.
EPFO payroll data trends from the past four years show that 4.86 crore net new subscribers were added to the portal. These included new payroll (first payroll), second payroll (rejoined/resubscribed members), and formalized payrolls.
The first jobs accounted for 47% of the total net new payroll, and the second jobs accounted for 2.17 crore. This means that the net increase in formalization was 42 lakh in FY20-FY23, as per the report penned by the group chief economic advisor to SBI Soumya Kanti Ghosh. “If we see the Q1 EPFO payroll data for FY24, the trend is quite encouraging.”
The first quarter of the EPFO payroll data of FY24 shows encouraging data with 44 lakh net new EPF subscribers joined of which the first payroll was 19.2 lakh. If the trend continues, the net new payroll will surpass the 160 lakh mark, the highest ever with the first payroll in the 70-80 lakh bracket, Ghosh said.
The NPS data shows 8.24 lakh new subscribers in FY23 of which state government payrolls are 4.64 lakh and non-government payrolls are 2.30 lakh whereas central payrolls are 1.29 lakh. Around 31 lakh new subscribers have joined the NPS in the past four years.
This means that the total payroll generation of the EPFO and NPS combined is over 5.2 crore from FY20 to FY23. The share of women’s payroll was around 27%.
Moreover, the report shows a decline in the revision of the second payroll (rejoined/resubscribed) in the first quarter of the current financial year. This means that more people may be deciding to stick to their current employment.
Everyone should be talking about this
— Abhishek (@AbhishBanerj) September 14, 2023
India's economy added 5.2 crore formal sector jobs
Half of them new
These are just the *formal sector* jobs
It means many many more were added in informal sector pic.twitter.com/vGZo1duSw6
Experts say that if combined with data from the unformalized sector, the numbers could be much higher. The development signals at a significant resurgence of the Indian economy in the post-COVID period.
