Formal employment numbers decline in November

New Delhi: Formal employment in India registered a decline in November 2024, with two out of three social security schemes recording a fall in new subscriptions, according to a report released by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MoSPI) on Friday.

However, the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF), the largest of the schemes, recorded an 11.2% increase in new subscriptions to 0.87 million in November from 0.79 million in the month before. Despite this, November's EPF subscriptions were the lowest recorded in 2024-25 after October.

On the other hand, new subscriptions to the Employees' State Insurance Scheme (ESIC) and the National Pension Scheme (NPS) declined, according to the report titled 'Payroll Reporting in India: An Employment Perspective-November 2024'.


ESIC subscriptions fell 9.6% to 1.2 million in November from 1.3 million in October, marking the lowest level since April 2024.

NPS recorded a decline of 37% to 40,920 from 64,977 over the same period, the lowest in the current fiscal.

A gender-wise analysis showed that the number of new male subscriptions to EPF increased by 11.5% to 0.6 million in November from October, compared to a 10.5% rise to 0.2 million in female subscriptions in the same period.

For both ESIC and NPS, the decline was more pronounced among males. The number of new male ESIC subscriptions fell by 10.6% in November from October, while female subscriptions declined by 5.8%.