New hires decline in August, hit four-month low, EPFO ​​data reveals

New formal hiring slowed in August, according to official data. The latest monthly payroll data released by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) showed that the formal labor market may be experiencing a downturn.

The number of new monthly subscribers under the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) declined by nearly 11 percent to 930,000. Staff additions hit a four-month low after 1.05 million new subscribers were registered in July, Business Standard reported.

The EPFO ​​data, released on Sunday, helps in understanding the formal workforce. Of the 930,000 new EPF subscribers registered in August, the contribution of the 18-25 age group fell to 59.26 percent or 551,000, from 59.4 percent or 625,000 registered in July . People in this age group are typically more recent entrants into the workforce for the first time and indicate a robust labor market.

Female subscribers of new additions decreased to 27.2% or 253,000 from 29% or 305,000 registered the previous month. This indicated a decline in the participation of women in the active population.

In particular, net payroll additions are calculated taking into account the number of new subscribers, the number of subscribers who have left the system and the number of former subscribers who have returned to the social security institution. This number reached 1.85 million in August.

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However, monthly net payroll statistics are provisional in nature and are often revised strongly the following month. That is why this data is not considered very reliable when compared to the new number of EPF subscribers. Payroll data also showed that nearly 135,400 members left the system and later joined the organization.

The Ministry of Labor issued an official statement and said: “Previous payroll data is provisional as data generation is an ongoing exercise as updating employee records is a continuous process. The previous data they are updated every month.”