The formal employment in India has witnessed a decline in August as per the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) and for the National Pension Scheme (NPS). The declining figures come after the same remained robust for almost four months.
As reported by the Economic Times, a report by NSO released on Tuesday suggests that the net new EPFO subscribers decreased 7.1 per cent from 1.82 million in July to 1.69 million in August.
Compared to 1.58 million subscribers added in July, the ESIC reported an 8 per cent decrease to 1.46 million subscribers in August. Moreover, the net new enrolments in the insurance programme were 1.56 million in June, 1.51 million in May, and 1.28 million in April.
Though the net addition was higher than the last three months, the NPS saw a decline of 0.71 per cent with 65,543 new subscribers as compared to 66,014 in July.
The year-on-year comparison provides an overview of the growth in formal employment as compared to August 2021, when the nation was still recovering from the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under the EPFO, ESIC and NPS, formal jobs created in August this year were higher by 14.4 per cent, 10.5 per cent and 16.3 per cent respectively as compared to the previous year.
As reported by the Economic Times, around 0.98 million new members have signed up under the social security cover of the EPF & MP Act, 1952 for the first time out of the total 1.69 million net subscribers recruited throughout the month. Moreover, instead of claiming a final withdrawal, around 0.71 million net subscribers rejoined the EPFO by moving their accumulations from their old PF accounts to their current ones.
