EPFO, NPS Data Show India Added 5.2 Crore Formal Jobs In Last Four Years: SBI Research

India created 5.2 crore payrolls from FY20 to FY23, according to SBI Research's analysis of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation and the National Pension Scheme data.

The net new EPF subscriber addition from FY20 to FY23 was 4.86 crore, according to the EPFO payroll data trend for the last four years, the report said. This number, however, consists of new payrolls (first payroll), second payrolls (rejoined or resubscribed members), and formalised payrolls.

On subsequently estimating the net new payroll (first job or fresh job) adjusted for re-joined or re-subscribed members and formalisation (based on Electronic Challan cum Return data), the actual net new payroll was 2.27 crore during FY20 to FY23, the note said.

While first jobs account for 47% of the total net new payroll, the second job (or the exited members who re-joined and re-subscribed) stood at 2.17 crore during the four year period ending FY23.

"If we see the Q1 EPFO payroll data for FY24, the trend is quite encouraging," said Soumya Kanti Ghosh, group chief economic advisor at State Bank of India. Already, 44 lakh net new EPF subscribers have joined, of which the first payroll was 19.2 lakh, he said. "If this trend continues for the whole fiscal, then in FY24, the net new payroll will cross the 160 lakh mark—the highest ever, with the first payroll in the range of 70–80 lakh."

The NPS data indicates 8.24 lakh new subscribers in FY23, with state government payrolls of 4.64 lakh, followed by non-government payrolls of 2.30 lakh, and central government payrolls of 1.29 lakh, the note said. In the last four years, around 31 lakh new subscribers joined the NPS.

So, cumulatively, the total payroll generation of EPFO and NPS is more than 5.2 crore from FY20 to FY23.

There had been a significant decline in the revision of the number of members who have rejoined or resubscribed in the first quarter of the current financial year in the EPFO data, Ghosh said. This would mean more people might decide to stick with their current employment, he said.