Fresh Formal Sector Hiring Drops 3% in Jan 2025, Youth Share Sees Dip

The Employees' Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) witnessed a nearly 2.83% month-on-month decline in new member enrollment in January 2025, indicating a decline in new formal sector hiring. According to data released by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, EPFO enrolled 8.23 lakh new subscribers during the month compared to 8.47 lakh in December last year.

However, data showed that net job creation has increased by 11.6% year-on-year in January to 17.8 lakh against 16.2 lakh during the same period last year. In January 2024, around 8.07 lakh new subscribers joined the EPFO. The new subscribers’ addition shows a year-on-year growth of 1.87 % from the previous year in January 2024, it said.

In January this year, the share of young people between the ages of 18 and 25 declined to 57.07% from 57.28% in the previous month. The ministry informed that the share of young people registered a YoY growth of 3.07% in January this year.

Furthermore, the net payroll addition for the young people is approximately 7.3 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.

“This is in consonance with the earlier trend which indicates that most individuals joining the organised workforce are youth, primarily first-time job seekers,” the ministry said.

The net new subscribers added to EPFO stood at 12.8 lakh in April, 13.5 lakh in May, 13.9  lakh in June, 16.1 lakh in July, 15.8 lakh in August, 18.8 lakh in September, 13.4 lakh in October and 14.6 lakh in November of last year, as per government data.

The payroll data highlights that approximately 15.03 lakh members exited and subsequently rejoined EPFO. This figure depicts a significant year-over-year growth of 23.55% compared to January 2024.

Female Membership

The contribution of women in January 2025 also stood at 2.17 lakh as compared to 2.22 lakh in the preceding month. However, the recent figure exhibits significant YoY growth of 6.01% compared to January 2024, it added.

Additionally, the net female payroll addition during the month stood at around 3.44 lakh, an increase of 13.48% compared to the previous month.