Over 18 million jobs created in 15 months says CSO report

More than 18 million jobs were generated by the country’s formal sector in a 15- month period starting September 2017 and ending November 2018, suggests a study based on payroll data of retirement fund body EPFO, PFRDA and Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC). As many as 1,84,38,748 new members joined the ESI scheme run by ESIC during the 15 months until November 2018, showed the Central Statistics Office (CSO) study based on payroll data of different social security schemes.

The CSO study showed that as many as 1,79,34,300 new members joined the social security schemes run by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) during September 2017 to November 2018. However, the study stated that 1,39,31,607 members exited the EPFO schemes during the 15-month period and 33,48,093 members rejoined the subscription again during the period. Thus the net addition was 73,50,786 during the period under review.

The study showed that as many as 10,31,484 new members joined the ESI scheme in November 2018, which was 12.88 per cent lower than 11,84,042 new subscribers in the same month in 2017. The highest number of 14,68,880 subscribers joined the ESI scheme in July 2018 during the 15-month period.