LinkedIn survey finds women, Gen Z most impacted by COVID-19

New Delhi: The second wave of COVID-19 in India recently brought the entire country to its knees in various ways. Among this, an area that took the brunt of the second wave was employment where reports have already revealed how over a crore people became jobless with an income decline in a huge amount of households.

A recent survey by LinkedIn, global professional networking platform has found that Gen Z and women are two of the most vulnerable groups right now in the job market post the second wave.

According to the survey, India's hiring rate recovered moderately from 10 per cent in April to 35 per cent in May, but working women and young professionals still remain vulnerable to economic turbulence and burnout is a reality.

Relesing new data on Tuesday, LinkedIn said working women are four times less confident than their male counterparts about getting a job. And the average time taken for new graduates to find jobs has increased from two to over three months.

As India slowly recovers from the second Covid wave, the workforce is beset with economic uncertainty, coupled with low confidence and optimism levels about their professional future, according to LinkedIn data.

Commenting on how 'remote work' (working from home) is here to stay, LinkedIn stated that it offered "a glimmer of hope to new graduates, women professionals, and the future workforce."

A little more than seven in 10 companies in India are keen on moving to a completely remote setup. The proportion of entry-level jobs labelled as 'remote' has increased by nine times between 2020 and 2021.

The demand for IT talent continues to surge. Application developers, software engineers and SAP specialists are the top three most in-demand professionals today. Knowledge of SQL and JavaScript is the most sought-after skill set on LinkedIn.

Even as digital transformation continues to shape the industrial landscape, sectors such as finance, corporate services and manufacturing have seen a growth in hiring, thanks to the resumption of economic activity, the LinkedIn data showed. More than nine in 10 companies in India, however, are merging roles, and looking to fill open roles internally.

A worrying aspect of the LinkedIn report is the finding that India's workforce has slowly but surely arrived at the brink of a collective burnout.

India's overall workforce confidence has declined after peaking in early March, according to the report.

The aftermath of the second Covid-19 wave has left professionals in India -- particularly Gen Z and working women -- increasingly vulnerable to the economic uncertainty in the job market, the LinkedIn study revealed.