The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) on Thursday released provisional payroll data for January 2025, revealing a net addition of 17.89 lakh members.

This marked an increase of 11.48% in net payroll addition in January as compared to December 2024.

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Furthermore, the year-on-year analysis reveals a growth of 11.67% in net payroll additions compared to January 2024, signifying increased employment opportunities and heightened awareness of employee benefits, bolstered by EPFO’s effective outreach initiatives.

New subscribers enrolled in January was around 8.23 lakh showing YoY growth of 1.87%.

“This growth in new subscribers can be attributed to growing employment opportunities, increased awareness of employee benefits, and EPFO’s successful outreach programmes,” the Ministry of Labour & Employment said.

Of the total new subscribers added in January, around 2.17 lakhs are new female subscribers exhibiting a significant year-over-year growth of 6.01%.

Furthermore, the net female payroll addition during January stood at around 3.44 lakh, reflecting an increase of 13.48% compared to December.

It also depicts a significant year-over-year growth of 13.58% compared to January 2024.

State-wise analysis of payroll data denotes that the top five states/UTs constitute around 59.98 per cent of net payroll addition, adding a total of around 10.73 lakh net payroll during the month.

Of all the states, Maharashtra is leading by adding 22.77 per cent of net payroll during the month. The states/UTs of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Telangana individually added more than 5 per cent of the total net payroll during the month.

A noticeable aspect of the data is the dominance of the 18-25 age group, with 4.70 lakh new subscribers added in the 18-25 age group, constituting a significant 57.07% of the total new subscribers added in January 2025.

New subscribers in the 18-25 age group added in the month show a growth of 3.07% from the previous year in January 2024.

The net payroll addition for the age group 18-25 for January 2025 is approximately 7.27 lakh, reflecting an increase of 6.19% compared to the previous month of December 2024 and a growth of 8.15% from the previous year in January 2024.

In terms of the industry, of the total net payroll addition, around 39.86% addition is from expert services consisting of manpower suppliers, normal contractors, security services, miscellaneous activities, etc.