Formal employment declined in June after new subscriptions in the formal sector schemes picked up in the previous month, data released on August 23 showed.

New subscriptions to the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) scheme were down a percent in June from the previous month at 1.02 million. Subscriptions to the Employees’ State Insurance Scheme (ESIC), which caters to relatively low-paid employees, also fell 6.5 percent to 1.62 million, a ministry of statistics and programme implementation report said.

The number of employees joining the National Pension Scheme (NPS) also declined to 64,799 in June from 79,080 in the previous month.

Urban unemployment declined marginally to 6.6 percent in the first quarter of FY25 from 6.7 percent in the previous quarter, the periodic labour force survey data released by the ministry earlier this month said.

Women found more employment in June.

The share of women in EPF net additions was at 29 percent in June against 26 percent in the year-ago period. Similarly, in ESIC, the share grew to 21.8 percent from 21 percent.