Women remain underrepresented in India’s formal job growth despite rising EPFO additions: Report

New business data points to the fact that The formal employment ecosystem in India is expanding quickly, but women keep account for a disproportionately small share of payroll-linked jobs, highlighting a persistent gender gap in the country’s formalisation story.

Data cited in Quess Corp’s Pulse H1 FY2026: India’s Workforce Landscape & Quess Corp’s Role in it report reveals that EPFO further noted 69.03 lakh net members between April and July 2025. Monthly additions rose from 14.31 lakh in April to 14.62 lakh in May, 19.05 lakh in June and 21.04 lakh in July. The first quarter of FY26 alone, as a result, accounted for nearly 48 lakh net additions.

That stated, women’s participation in this expanding formal workforce stays significantly softer than men’s. The report says female labour force participation rate (LFPR) stood at 33.7 percent, while women accounted for only 25 percent of the flexi workforce, compared with a national workforce average of around 34.3 percent.

Quess’s own workforce data presents an even sharper gap. Women constituted 17 percent of its workforce, or around 82,000 workers, while men accounted for 83 percent. The report notes that the female share is below both the flexi workforce average of 25 percent and the national workforce average of 34 percent.

Importantly, the report identifies this as a structural offering rather than simply a hiring gap. "The gender gap mirrors India’s broader structural challenge; women stay underrepresented in sales, logistics, and frontline operational roles."

Sector-wise data reveals how uneven participation is. Women account for just 9 percent of telecom workers, 6 percent of agriculture workers and 5 percent of public-enterprise workers in Quess’s workforce. Their representation is elevated in IT/ITeS at 32 percent, HHO at 26 percent, EMPI at 22 percent, FMCG/FMCG at 20 percent, retail at 18 percent and logistics at 17 percent.

There is, that stated, a firm youth component to female participation. Among Quess’s female workforce, 35 percent are aged 21–25 and 27 percent are aged 25–30, while 12 percent are aged 18–21.

The formalisation propel is additionally increasingly linked to UAN creation. Quess says 26,000 new UANs were generated in H1 FY26, bringing previously unorganised workers into the formal system.

The numbers suggest that while India is making rapid progress in formal employment, getting more women into EPFO-linked jobs stays a critical next step in making that formalisation more broad-based and inclusive.