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The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has added a total of 14.93 lakh members in the month of December last year.

The year-on-year comparison of payroll data reflects an increase of 32,635 in net membership addition in December 2022 as compared to the corresponding month during last year in 2021.

The provisional payroll data of the EPFO released on Monday highlighted that out of 14.93 lakh members added during the month, around 8.02 lakh new members have come under the social security coverage of EPFO for the first time.

Among the newly joined members, highest enrolment is registered in the age-group of 18-21 years with 2.39 lakh members, followed by the age-group of 22-25 years with 2.08 lakh members.

The age-groups of 18-25 years constitute 55.64 per cent of total new members during the month. This indicates that the majority of the members joining EPFO are first-time job seekers who are joining the organised sector workforce of the country.

The data also highlighted that approximately 3.84 lakh members exited while 10.74 lakh members exited and re-joined EPFO membership.

These members switched their jobs and re-joined the establishments covered under EPFO and opted to transfer their accumulations instead of applying for final settlement thus, extending their social security protection.

Gender-wise analysis of payroll data indicated that enrolment of new female members has been 2.05 lakh in December 2022.

The percentage of new female members among the total new joinees has increased from 25.14 per cent in November 2022 to 25.57 per cent during the current month.

Social security cover under the Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 has been extended to these female members for the first time.

State-wise payroll figures highlight that top five states in terms of net member addition are Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Karnataka and Haryana.

These states together added 60.08 per cent of net member addition during the month.

Of all the states, Maharashtra is leading by adding 24.82 per cent of overall member addition followed by the state of Tamil Nadu with 10.08 per cent during the month.

The classification of industry-wise payroll data indicates that 'Expert Services' (consisting of manpower suppliers, normal contractors, security services, miscellaneous activities etc.) constitute 38.22 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, 'financing establishment', 'beedi making', 'trading - commercial establishments', 'travel agencies', etc.