New Delhi: A Parliamentary panel has asked the Ministry of Labour and Employment to use and reconcile the data and studies conducted by credible agencies with that of retirement fund body Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) for depicting the real picture of job loss in the country especially in the situation like COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic had an impact on employment in the country as the economic activities slowed down due to lockdown restrictions imposed by central as well as states to contain the spread of the deadly virus from March in 2020."...data and studies conducted by other reputed and credible agencies be taken into consideration by the Ministry and reconciled with the data collected/maintained by EPFO so as to depict an authentic and real picture of the rate of unemployment/loss of jobs in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic for initiating requisite corrective measures as and when warranted," stated Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour in its 25th report tabled in Parliament last week.
It observed that despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the net EPFO payroll addition for 2020-21 was 77.08 lakh which is almost at par with the 2019-20 net payroll addition of 78.58 lakh. It also noted that there is an addition in net payroll in each month of the financial year 2020-21, except for the months of April and May 2020 as most of the economic activities during these two months of 2020 were at halt due to complete lockdown measures put in place.