Job creation: The new subscribers added to the Employment Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has declined by 10.1% to 5.86 million in the first half (April-September) of FY24. During the same period last year 6.52 million subscribed to EPFO.
Though this reflects a slow down in the formal job creation, the churn at the job market has come at a time when the share of self-employed has risen continuously over the past few years. However, it should be noted that only Formal workforce enjoys social security benefits and is protected by labour laws.
Also Read: Formal job creation hits 9 month high in June: EPFO
The number of subscribers in the 18-28 age group has also fallen by 9.54% to 3.93 million this year from 4.34 million in the corresponding period last year. Business Standard quoted Rituparna Chakraborty co-founder of TeamLease Services who said that the Technology and knowledge sector, which forms the bulk of the formal workforce, try to rationalise their workforce and battle declining revenues amid muted demand, hirings have suffered a great deal this year.
“In many cases, even the candidates who got placement offers are yet to officially join the firms,” she added.
The number of women subscribers also declined by 11.1% to 1.53 million from 1.73 million last year. This reflects the difficulty faced by women to access formal jobs as firms insist upon working from the office. However, as per Business Standard that quoted Santosh Mehrotra, a visiting professor at the University of Bath, the labour markets are yet to recover as the pace of formal job creation is quite low and not keeping pace with the rising labour force.
This is leading to an increase in self-employment or engaging in agriculture, particularly for the young and women.
The unemployment rate had dropped to a six-year low of 3.2% in the July 2022-June 2023 period from 4.1% in the July 2021-June 2022 period, as per the annual periodic labour force survey (PLFS) released by the National Statistical Office (NSO). Likewise, the labour force participation rate had also increased to 57.9% from 55.2% in the corresponding period.