A day after retirement fund body Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and Pension Fund Regulatory Development Authority (PFRDA) released data on job creation, the government think-tank NITI Aayog has said that between September 2017 and February 2018, 3.53 million (35.3 lakh) new jobs were generated. It added that the data for recent months are provisional due to continuous updating of employee records, this could be called a conservative estimate and the actual figures may well be more than this. However, EPFO data showed that during this six-month period 3.1 million (31.10 lakh) new payroll additions were made across all age groups.
Talking about PFRDA data, NITI Aayog said that the New Pension Scheme (NPS) data indicates generation of 420,000 new payrolls during the given period, that too only from Tier-1 account. Besides, the NPS currently manages the corpus of around 5 million (50 lakh) employees in state and central government. It said “We may as well as bid goodbye to the days of analyses based on random sample surveys. Hopefully, this would also end the debate regarding and criticisms about jobless growth in the economy. A more constructive phase of focusing on deriving the most out of this data for furthering development should now begin.”
Highlighting importance of payroll data, the government think-tank stated that India has, for the first time, introduced monthly payroll reporting for the formal sector to facilitate analysis of new and continuing employment, and this data would provide a more firm basis for various analysis and studies of the economy and job creation. Besides, the EPFO, Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) and the PFRDA have released payroll data. It added that the numbers from these three organisations are an eye opener and put an end to all speculations and conjectures regarding job creation in the economy. They also strengthen the efforts made by the government on job creation and formalisation of the economy.
Start Research-backed Investing ...Now. Subscribe to Sapphire
MoneyWorks4Me is a SEBI-registered Investment Adviser (IA) dedicated to helping investors build long-term wealth through transparent, research-driven, conflict-free guidance. Founded in 2008, we started our journey as a Research Analyst (RA), providing deep fundamental analysis, intrinsic value insights, and long-term investing frameworks for Indian equities. In 2017, we transitioned to a full-fledged SEBI-registered Investment Adviser, strengthening our commitment to acting as a fiduciary—always putting the investor’s interest first.
To become India’s most trusted, research-powered fiduciary advisory platform—where every investor, regardless of experience, can make calm, confident, and well-reasoned investment decisions.
MoneyWorks4Me ensures this through: