Subscribers for retirement fund body EPFO have increased to 16.02 lakh subscribers in January 2024, according to payroll data released on March 24.

Around 8.08 lakh members were enrolled for the first time in January 2024, the labour ministry said in a statement.

Out of 8.08 lakh new members, around 2.05 lakh are new female members, indicating diversity at workplace. Also, the net female member addition during the month stood at around 3.03 lakh.
 
Other aspects of the data shared highlight the dominance of the 18-25 age group, which constitutes a notable 56.41 per cent of the total new members added in January 2024.

This indicates that a majority of individuals taking part in the organised workforce are youth and first-time job seekers.

About 12.17 lakh members exited and subsequently rejoined EPFO, indicating they switched their jobs and re-joined the establishments included in the ambit of EPFO, choosing to transfer their accumulations instead of applying for final settlement. 

Of the total net membership, around 40.71 per cent addition is from expert services which consists of manpower suppliers, normal contractors, security services, miscellaneous activities.

EPFO has been releasing payroll data since 2018, covering the period of September 2017 onwards. The monthly payroll data comprises of the count of members joining EPFO for the first time through Aadhaar validated Universal Account Number (UAN), existing members exiting from coverage of EPFO and those who exited but re-joining as members.