New Delhi, Sep 3 (IANS): Over 50 per cent of the payroll recorded in the April-June period constitued employees who joined their first jobs, according to an SBI Ecowrap report.

India created 30.74 lakh payroll in Q1FY22, of which 16.3 lakh were first jobs or new payroll (EPFO and NPS), 11.8 lakh were second jobs or existing payroll, and 2.6 lakh were formalised accounts.

Cumulatively, total new payroll or first job generation of EPFO and NPS was almost 16.3 lakh in Q1FY22. If the new payrolls increase at this rate, then the new payroll may cross 50 lakh mark in FY22 as against 44 lakh in FY21, the report said.

"The good thing is that 3 indicators of net EPF subscribers have witnessed a jump in Q1FY22 indicating that labor market disruptions were much lower during 2nd wave," it said.

The rate of formalisation is now at 10 per cent, while the ratio of first jobs or new payrolls to total payroll was at 50 per cent, indicating every one out of two jobs was a new addition to payroll. This is also an improvement from 47 per cent in FY21.

"We expect labor market activity to remain better in current fiscal as companies will continue with their hiring plans to get ahead of the pandemic," said the report authored by Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Group Chief Economic Adviser, State Bank of India.

"The latest data released by EPFO indicates that net new EPF subscribers during Apr-Jun'21 were 28.9 lakh which was quite encouraging given the fact that this period was marred with a devastating second wave of Covid-19," it said.