Page 394 - economic_survey_2021-2022

368 Economic Survey 2021-22

wave of Covid-19 (April-June 2021). However, the magnitude of decline in both the cases was
less compared to that during April-May 2020. The monthly net additional EPF subscription
during May 2021 was 5 lakh as against -2.9 lakh in May 2020. In November 2021, net addition
in subscription peaked with 13.9 lakh new subscribers, the highest in any given month since
2017. The latest payroll data of EPFO shows that the net addition in EPF subscribers reached
13.95 lakh during the month of November 2021, which translates into growth of 109.21 percent
from November 2020, and a growth of 25.65 percent from October, 2021.

10.53 Thus, the monthly net addition in subscriptions during 2021 has not only been higher
than the corresponding monthly values in 2020, but they have also surpassed the levels of the
corresponding months during pre-pandemic year 2019. This points to the formalisation of the

job markets as well as new hiring (Figure 13).

Figure 13: Net addition in EPF Subscribers (in lakhs)

16.0
Lockdown Second -wave
14.0 13.9
12.9
12.0 12.2
11.2
10.0 10.2
8.0 8.3
in lakhs 6.0 5.0

4.0
3.1
2.0

0.0
-2.0
-2.9
-4.0
Source: EPFO
Note:
1. Data is provisional as updation of employees’ records is a continuous process and gets updated in
subsequent month/s.
2. Net subscriptions equals new EPF subscribers added to exited members who rejoined and re-subscribed
net of members exited
10.54 A swift rebound of subscriptions continued in Expert Services and Trading establishments

until September 2021, and in Engineering until August, 2021. Subscriptions, however, slowed

down in August 2021 in Building & Construction. In November 2021 , EPFO subscriptions
20
have increased in these sectors (Figure 14).

20 Establishments under EPF are highly concentrated in few services. In 2021-22, expert service (43 percent) had highest share, followed by trading

– commercial establishments (6.9 percent), engineers – engineering contractors (5.1 percent), and building and construction industry (4.8 percent).
Share of ‘Trading – commercial establishments’ in net payroll subscribers has increased in 2020-21 from 2019-20, however it has declined for other
three industries.

1