New DelhiAt least 1.04 million new workers joined the formal workforce in September, the Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) said in its payroll data on Friday. This is the fifth consecutive month that new hires increased after a sharp drop in April, following the pan-India lockdown imposed in March.
The provisional data for September set the new hires at 1,047,167, while the updated data for July and August showed 668,384 and 719,116 new jobs, respectively.
In October, EPFO had said that 669,914 new subscribers were added in August. Similarly, in October, it had said that 648,077 new subscribers were added in July, which was 20,000 fewer than it claimed on Friday.
The retirement fund body said the gradual growth in payroll additions was an indication of a strong recovery to pre-covid-19 levels. EPFO said that for the past three months, Maharashtra, Haryana, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka were “at the forefront of job recovery.”
India has witnessed a huge jobs crisis due to various factors, including a slowing economy amid the covid crisis and the ensuing lockdown that led to several companies closing their doors or facing an extreme financial crisis.
Of the new hires in September, 448,233 were for the 18-25 age group, nearly 51,000 more than in August. The 18-25 age group is considered crucial in the labor market to measure the recovery of the sector.
Net payroll additions for September were more than 1.49 million, EPFO said. These also include people who left an organization in August to return to the EPFO fold and get a job at another company. However, experts rely on payroll data to get new hires, as the number of net hires tends to fluctuate.
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