As many as 14,05,171 jobs were created in Tamil Nadu’s formal sector in Financial Year (FY) 2022-23, up by about 9.4% from 12,84,986 jobs in FY 2021-22.
Job creation is measured in the number of new net enrolments made with the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). EPFO released the provisional payroll data for the month of March and Financial Year 2022-23 on May 20. In Tamil Nadu, the maximum addition was seen in the age group of 18-21, where 3,76,872 jobs were created in 2022-23. In the 22-25 age group, 3,6,8981 jobs were added in 2022-23, followed by 2,44,891 jobs in the more than 35 age bracket.
In the age group of 29-35, 2,35,006 jobs were added, followed by 1,63,658 jobs in the 26-28 age bracket, the data showed. The less than 18 years age group saw an addition of 15,763 jobs in 2022-23. At the national level, around 1.39 crore net members have been added by the EPFO in 2022-23, which is an increase of 13.22% from 1.22 crore net members in 2021-22.
Segments such as manufacturing, electronics and real estate had done well in the State. However, there was stress in major employment generating sectors like textile and leather due to global factors, said M. Ponnuswami, Chairman and Managing Director, Pon Pure Chemicals, and Chairman, Confederation of Indian Industry Sub-Committee on MSME and Ease of Doing Business (Southern Region).
In March, the top five States for net member addition were Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Haryana and Gujarat. These States together constituted 58.68% of net member addition, the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment said in the released data. Among all States during March, Maharashtra topped the table by adding 20.63% of net members followed by Tamil Nadu’s contribution of 10.83%, it added.
It should be noted that the EPFO data only forms a small fraction of formal employment, said K.R. Shanmugam, director, Madras School of Economics. The payroll data is provisional since the generation is a continuous exercise since updating employee records is an ongoing process. The data is updated every month, the Labour Ministry said.
Mr. Shanmugam pointed out that as per the data, Tamil Nadu’s share in the overall net addition declined from 10.5% in 2021-22 to 10.1% in 2022-23. During the peak COVID-19 period in 2020-21, the share was only 8.6%. Tamil Nadu’s growth in net addition was 9.4%, compared to the all-India growth level of 13.2% in 2022-23. Maharashtra had seen a growth of 14.5%, he noted.
