The economy added at least 2.2 million formal jobs over the six months to February, according to payroll data released by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and the National Pension System (NPS) for the first time, bolstering the government’s credentials on job creation.Overall, EPFO data shows 3.1 million new additions across age groups over this period, of which those in the 18-25 age group, considered a proxy for new jobs, amount to 1.85 million. Such age-wise categorisation is also new. Excluding the 18-25 age band, additions in the higher age groups suggest greater formalisation of the economy, experts said.In the case of NPS, the new accounts opened in the central and government sector stood at 350,000 during this period, corresponding to new jobs and taking the total to 2.2 million.The data will provide comfort to the government which has been facing criticism over sluggish job creation.The Employees’ State Insurance Corp. (ESIC) also released payroll numbers on Wednesday, but in this case there may be double counting as these are not Aadhaar seeded. This data shows new registrations minus those who ceased to pay contributions at 520,000 over the six-month period. The net addition in the 18-25 age group is 830,000, which would take the total jobs generated in the six months to over 3 million based on these numbers.Soumya Kanti Ghosh, State Bank of India group chief economic adviser, estimated the full-year payroll addition based on the EPFO and NPS numbers at 5.8 million for the year ended March, in a note released on Wednesday.Ghosh was the co-author of a January paper with Pulak Ghosh of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, that had estimated 7 million jobs would be created in FY18. The report came as a boost for the government but was contested by economists who said counting additions to provident fund subscribers may not provide an accurate picture. Some also pointed out that the two researchers had been given exclusive access to data that wasn’t then available to the public. While the economy has been in revival mode over the past few quarters, jobless growth and employment generation are key issues ahead of an election year.“It is not entirely true to say that these are all new jobs created,” said DK Pant of India Ratings. “Rather, I see it as greater formalisation of country’s workforce wherein earlier casual workers are now being brought into the safety net following rollout of some job incentive schemes for employers in the budget.”India’s organised sector payroll data is currently collated using information from firms registered under EPFO and ESIC. However, only companies with 20 and more employees are registered under the Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions ( EPF & MP) Act, while the ESIC Act covers those with a minimum of 10 employees. Also, large entities, known as exempt organisations, can manage their retirement corpus in-house. EPFO believes the age-wise cataloguing will aid policy making.There are six such classifications--less than 18 years of age, 18-21, 22-25, 26-28, 29-35 and above 35. “This data can be helpful in policy making, planning and research work as the planners may have an idea as to what is the estimate of employees in different age bands,” EPFO said on Wednesday.The Economic Survey had pegged formal sector workforce at 127 million on the basis of filings under the GST regime or 52 million more than the 75 million based on the prevalent definition of social security.“Formal non-farm payroll from a social security perspective is estimated at about 7.5 crore or 31% of the non-agricultural workforce. The formal non-farm payroll from a tax definition is estimated at 12.7 crore or nearly 53% of the non-agriculture workforce in the formal sector,” it had said.