Indian working women, Gen Z vulnerable to COVID turbulence: LinkedIn

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, according to LinkedIn, the global professional networking platform.

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.

This sentiment reflects strongly across the rising demand for flexibility in India as every second job-seeker prioritises location, hours and work-life balance when looking for a job today.

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.