• Source:PTI
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EPFO:  Retirement fund body EPFO registered a year-on-year increase of more than 19% to 1.65 crore members in 2023-24, indicating an improvement in the country's employment situation, according to recent data.  "In last 6 and half years alone, more than 6.1 crore members joined the EPFO (Employees' Provident Fund Organisation) fold, indicating formalisation of the job market," a labor ministry official told PTI.

The data shows that EPFO added 61.12 lakh net subscribers in 2018-19, which increased to 78.58 lakh in 2019-20. However, it fell to 77.08 lahks in 2020-21, mainly owing to the pandemic's impact, and then rebounded to 1.22 crore in 2021-22 and 1.38 crore in 2022-23.

The official reported that the body's net subscriber addition climbed by over 19% to 1.65 crore in 2023-24, up from 1.38 crore in 2022-23. The official believes that the net increase in EPFO subscriptions is an indicator of the extent to which the job market has become formalised, and the coverage of social security advantages to the organised/semi-organized sector workforce.

The biggest advantage of EPFO data is that it is administrative data, he noted. During the nationwide lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the net addition to EPFO subscriptions declined and turned negative in April-May 2020, indicating a net exit from the scheme, he added. 

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With the economy reopening and restrictions easing, EPFO subscriptions rebounded quickly, reaching 12.2 lakh in September 2020, he noted. The net additional subscription dropped again in November 2020 and during the second wave of Covid-19 (April-June 2021).

However, he said, the extent of the decline in both cases was lower than in April-May 2020. The official also cited the increase in vacancies on the National Career Service (NCS) portal in 2023-24. The NCS Portal has seen a remarkable development, with a 214 percent increase in job openings in 2023-24 compared to 2022-23, from about 3.5 million openings in FY23 to more than 10 million openings in FY24, he added.

The NCS Project is run under the Ministry of Labor and Employment as a standout initiative aimed at bridging the gap between employers and job seekers. Its primary objective is to revolutionize the National Employment Service by providing a wide range of employment-related services, including job matching, career counseling, and employability enhancement facilities, all conveniently accessible online.

The official also stated that analysis of PLFS (Periodic Labour Force Survey) data for the previous six years indicates an improving trend in labor participation rate and worker population ratio, with a decline in unemployment rates, improved indicators for female and youth employment, and that of the educated.

India's official data source for employment/unemployment indicators is the PLFS conducted by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) since 2017-18. The annual PLFS report depicts an improving trend from 2017-18 to 2022-23 in indicators related to Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR), and Unemployment Rate (UR) in usual status for persons aged 15 years and above.

For example, the WPR has risen from 46.8 percent in 2017-18 to 56 percent in 2022-23, the official said. Similarly, he said that labor force participation has also increased in the country from 49.8 percent in 2017-18 to 57.9 percent in 2022-23. The unemployment rate has declined from 6 percent in 2017-18 to a low of 3.2 percent in 2022-23, he stated.

(With PTI Inputs)

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