The National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has released the press note on Employment Outlook of the country covering the period September, 2017 to July, 2020 based on the administrative records available with selected government agencies to assess the progress in certain dimensions. 

Highlights

    • Employee related statistics include three major schemes

        ◦ Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) Scheme

        ◦ The Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) Scheme

        ◦ National Pension Scheme (NPS)

    • The data include information gender-wise, on the number of existing employees who paid contribution and the number of newly registered employees who are paying contribution, & those who restarted contribution, having ceased subscription in the past in EPF.

Employees Provident Fund

The Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) is a mandatory savings scheme under the Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952. It is managed under the aegis of Employees' Provident Fund Organization (EPFO). It covers every establishment in which 20 or more persons are employed (and certain other establishments which may be notified by the Central Government even if they employ less than 20 persons each), subject to certain conditions and exemptions as provided for in the Act. The pay ceiling is Rs.15000/- per month. Persons drawing pay above Rs. 15,000/- are exempted or can be enrolled with some permission or on voluntary basis. The number of members subscribing to this scheme gives an idea of the level of employment in the formal sector. The data on subscribers-new members, exited members and those subscribers that re-started their subscription is sourced from EPFO.

Employee State Insurance

The Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948 is applicable to non-seasonal, manufacturing establishments (other than a mine subject to the operation of the Mines Act, 1952 (35 of 1952), or a railway running shed) employing 10 or more workers. For health and medical institutions, the threshold limit is 20 or more workers. ESI Scheme for India is an integrated social security scheme tailored to provide socio-economic protection to the workers in the organized sector and their dependents, in contingencies, such as Sickness, Maternity and Death or Disablement due to an employment injury or occupational hazard. The wage ceiling is Rs.21000/- per month. Subscribers are termed as Insured Persons (IP) and a new IP number can also arise due to change in employment. Employees may cease to pay contribution due to wage exceeding the statutory ceiling of Rs.21000/- per month or owing to resignation, death, retirement or dismissal. The number of subscribers of this scheme also gives an idea of the level of employment in the formal sector. Data is sourced from Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) and the information may have an element of duplication with EPF data and is thus not additive.

National Pension Scheme

The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA)’s National Pension scheme (NPS) is an easily accessible, low cost, tax-efficient, flexible and portable retirement account. Under the NPS schemes for the Govt. Sector, the individual contributes to his retirement account and also his employer will co-contribute for the social security/welfare of the individual. NPS is designed on defined contribution basis wherein the subscriber contributes to his account, and the accumulated wealth depends on the contributions made and the income generated from investment of such wealth. From 1st January 2004, the Central and the State Governments have adopted this scheme for new employees except for armed forces. Most of the State Governments also adopted NPS subsequent to adoption of NPS by Central Government. NPS was extended to Corporate Sector from 2009 onwards and it provides platform for Corporates to make co-contribution in NPS accounts of their subscribers or facilitate them to make their own contributions for their NPS accounts. There are three variations of contributions i.e. only from employer, only from employee and contributions from both employer and employee.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants. The views expressed here are personal.)