Formal job creation shows mixed results in June

Formal job creation showed mixed results in June, with the net enrollments under the Employees’ Provident Fund Scheme rising 29% compared with the previous month, as enrollment for low-paying jobs declined 1.5%, data released Friday showed.

New subscriptions to the Employees' State Insurance Corporation, which applies to smaller establishments and less remunerative jobs, declined to 1.51 million in June compared with 1.53 million in May, according to ministry of statistics and programme implementation data.

There was also a decline in enrollments for the National Pension Scheme for a second consecutive month, but the extent of the decline slowed in June to 5% compared with 14% for the previous month.


Meanwhile, net enrollments to EPF rose owing to a rise in new enrollments and in the number of people re-subscribing to the scheme.

EPF, ESIC perform well, NPS loses

Net enrollments to the EPF scheme rose 32.1% compared with the average monthly additions in FY23, whereas average monthly additions for ESIC were up 5.1% compared to last year’s.

On the other hand, NPS subscriptions were down 12.7% compared to the previous year.

While average monthly enrollments of central government employees to NPS rose 17.2% in the first quarter, enrollments by state government employees fell 31%, while private sector enrollments were down 26%.

Some states have decided not to continue with the NPS and revert to the old pension scheme.

Women enrollment rises for better remunerative jobs

The proportion of women enrolled across EPF and ESIC remained below 25%, showing lower female enrollment in formal jobs. Of the total enrollment, the share of women in jobs rose for the EPF scheme but declined for ESIC over the last three months.

The share of women in total enrollments rose to 22% in June from 20% in April but declined marginally to 20.7% in June for ESIC from 21.2% in April.

For the NPS, however, the share of women in enrollments was constant at 30.6%.