New Payroll Report by Niti Aayog

Why in news?

A new payroll report to gauge the level of employment generation has been released by the Niti Aayog.

What is new payroll data report about?

• The report of payroll data is an important first step by the Union government to track job growth more closely.
• The payroll data collected by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) and the Pension fund Regulatory & Development Authority (PFRDA) has been consolidated by the Niti Aayog in the form of a report.
• This report will be released every month, to track the number of jobs added in the formal sector.
• The recently released report has measured the rate of employment addition for the period 2017 September to 2018 February.
• It highlights the new jobs generated in the 6 month period with the help of EPFO and PFRDA data.
• And the data collected by EPFO and PFRDA has suggested that jobs are being created in the country, which is seen as a positive growth indicator.

What are the limitations with the report?

• This report collects data only from the union and state government establishments and do not capture the jobs created in the professional jobs.
•  Also, employment generation in the informal sector, especially in the agriculture and micro enterprises are not captured which hold more than half of the total employee population.
• There is no methods used in the report to filter duplicate data and data from inactive accounts in EPFO and PFRDA.
• It is also possible that many new jobs accounted were already existing in informal sector but newly moved to the formal sector.

What measures can be taken to address these limitations?

• The NITI Aayog can additionally source data from the ICAI, bar council, medical council and other professional bodies to account for other avenues of employment.
• Periodic surveys can be conducted to identify the job creation in the informal sectors.
• Collaboration with NSSO can be done to bring out annual and quarterly surveys to provide a holistic picture of the employment status in the country.

Source: Business Line