New enrolments in the formal job market fall further in September

The number of first-time workers entering the formal job market declined yet again in September, as both the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) Scheme and Employees' State Insurance Corporation witnessed a decline in new enrollments, according to provisional data released Friday.

The number of new enrollments in the better-remunerative EPF scheme declined for the second month in a row in September, falling 6% to 891,583 compared with the previous month. Net enrollments in the EPF rose to 1.72 million in September, but data is expected to be revised downwards as exits from the scheme are revised upwards in subsequent months.

Enrollments to the ESIC, which usually caters to lower-paying jobs and applies to establishments with more than ten workers, have fallen for four consecutive months.


The decline in ESIC was much higher compared with the previous month, as number of new people joining the social security benefit scheme was down 4.7% in September compared with the 3.2% decline witnessed in August.

The National Pension Scheme, on the other hand, recorded a rise of 2.9%, with 73,318 new enrollments, up from 71,228 in the previous month. Average new enrollments have stayed above 70,000 for the second quarter of FY23.

Better footing than last year

An ET analysis indicates that despite the slowing down of enrollments in August and September, net subscriptions to the EPF were higher in the first half of the year compared with H1FY23.

EPF recorded 8.52 million net enrollments in H1FY24 compared with 7.16 million in the first half of the previous fiscal. Meanwhile, enrollments in lower-paying jobs were marginally lower (0.9%) compared with a similar period in the previous year.

NPS performance was much better, rising 5% to 400,862 fresh enrollments in April-September 2023 from the previous year.

The share of the private sector in NPS enrollments has declined, whereas central government employee enrollment has increased in the first half of the year.

The share of private sector enrollment in total NPS enrollments was 24% in H1FY24 from 31% in H1FY23.

Lower enrollments

-New enrollments to EPF and ESIC decline in September

-H1FY24 enrollments to EPF higher than H1FY23

-NPS subscriptions rise

	EPF	ESIC	NPS
H1FY23	7.16	8.92	0.38
H1FY24	8.52	8.84	0.40

Note: All figures in millions.
Source: MoSPI