‘Shecession’: Women twice more likely to be worried about jobs than men: LinkedIn

Women's plight has worsened after the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, LinkedIn's Workforce Confidence Index shows.

Twice as many women are worried about the availability of jobs and the time spent seeking employment compared to men during the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, LinkedIn's Workforce Confidence Index showed on Tuesday. According to the survey, which recorded the responses of 1891 people from May 8 to June 4, the pandemic’s second wave has left Indian professionals—particularly Gen Z and working women—increasingly vulnerable to the economic uncertainty in today’s evolving job market.

Women and young professionals' confidence are amongst the lowest in the workforce today. (Representative image)

"The plight of India’s working women has worsened after the second COVID-19 wave, as the individual confidence index (ICI) scores of female professionals fell from +57 in March to +49 in early June ー a 4x decline compared to working men (+58 in March to +56 in June)," LinkedIn's Workforce Confidence Index said.

"Decoding India’s evident ‘shecession’, findings show that India’s working women are ~2x more likely to be worried about the availability of jobs, their professional network, and time devoted to job seeking, than working men today. This uneven impact has also bruised the financial stability of working women as 1 in 4 (23%) female professionals are concerned about growing expenses or debt, in contrast with just 1 in 10 (13%) working men," it added.

The LinkedIn Workforce Confidence Index shows that India’s overall workforce confidence has declined after peaking in early March, with a composite score of +54--down 4 points from +58 in March. The survey said this dip in confidence is reflected strongly across professionals from creative industries such as entertainment, design, and media and communications, who expressed being uncertain about the future of their employers. "But as several parts of the economy gradually reopen, professionals from Software & IT and Hardware & Networking are growing increasingly confident about the future of their organizations," it said.

“As India slowly begins to come out of the second wave of Covid-19 cases, we see the year-over-year hiring rate recover from a low of 10% in April to 35% at the end of May. Despite this modest revival, confidence levels of working women and young professionals are amongst the lowest in the workforce today," Ashutosh Gupta, LinkedIn's India Country Manager, said.

"Remote jobs can be the ray of hope, to provide the much-needed flexibility and growth in opportunities to help them bounce back into the workforce," Gupta said.