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Women twice more vulnerable to unemployment in pandemic: Study

WION Web Team
New Delhi, Delhi, IndiaUpdated: Jun 23, 2021, 02:18 PM IST
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In Scotland’s 2022 census, people can self-identify to answer gender queries. Photograph:(Reuters)

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As per a survey conducted by professional networking site LinkedIn, twice as many women are worried about finding a job in the coronavirus pandemic in comparison to men

The coronavirus pandemic has been tough for everyone and the economy has plunged down heavily in every country.

Covid has resulted in massive job losses and many have become unemployed in the last 1.5 years. However, the second wave of coronavirus has been particularly difficult for women when it comes to employment.

As per a survey conducted by Microsoft-owned professional networking site LinkedIn, twice as many women are worried about finding a job in the coronavirus pandemic in comparison to men.

According to LinkedIn's Workforce Confidence Index, the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic has made working women and Gen Z vulnerable to unemployment and economic uncertainty.

This conclusion was made based on responses of 1,891 people from May 8 to June 4.

"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," the report added.

While the hiring rate has increased the confidence of women has altered due to the limited hiring options they are being offered in the pandemic. "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," Ashutosh Gupta, LinkedIn's India Country Manager, said.