As economy reboots, 66% of job seekers to increase time spent on job search: Report

According to LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index, those seeking new opportunities are going to spend more time looking for jobs now than they were in the last few months.

The LinkedIn Workforce Confidence Index showed a modest increase in India’s overall workforce confidence for the last fornight (June 1 to June 14).  (Pixabay)

LinkendIn shared its seventh edition of the Workforce Confidence Index which is based on the responses of 1,303 professionals from India collected over June 15 and June 28. The Workforce Confidence Index for this quarter revealed that optimism towards job security was been rising as businesses slowly started opening last month.

The Workforce Confidence Index showed a modest increase in India's overall workforce confidence, which reflected in the fortnight's composite score of +50 (up from +48 recorded over June 1 to June 14).

This growing confidence comes at a time when the economy is rebooting, thus sparking hiring prospects across varied industries such as e-commerce, IT services, insurance and gaming. The economic repercussions of the pandemic have also urged businesses to innovate their offerings to make significant changes within the system and how they function thereby stimulating job creation across sectors.

With the lockdown lifting in a few states and the new challenges Covid-19 has put in place has given rise to a new set of workforce demands and new economic opportunities across the industrial landscape. This has, in turn, lead to an uptick in hiring and fuelled the confidence of active job seekers.

Two of every three professional who have are looking for new jobs have said that they will increase their time spent searching for (66%) and applying to (64%) jobs in the next two weeks, according to the data collected by the index. Findings also highlight the fact that active job seekers have a clear intent to upskill today for a safer tomorrow as 68% say they will increase their time spent on online learning to harbor long-term job security and career progression.

LinkedIn Workforce Confidence Index findings also stated that decision-makers are to be more confident about their job security as compared to their junior workers. Only 1 in 4 senior professionals said they would increase their time spent on searching for jobs in comparison to almost half (45%) of the junior workforce.

Further reinforcing the confidence of senior executives towards job security, findings showed that only 16% of professionals who have roles like directors etc in their jobs (decision-makers) would increase the number of jobs they apply to as compared to 48% of the junior workforce.

“It must be understood that retaining a job in the present times is in itself a strong confidence booster. Many people are also willing to take up to 50% cut in their salaries for an assured job. This means that whoever retains a job today, clearly knows that his/her role matters to the organization even in the new reality,” explained HR expert Prabir Jha while speaking about why India's rising hope towards job security comes with slight trepidation.

“More experienced workers may have savings to support them in the long run,” he added to explain why senior professionals are not as inclined towards increasing their time spent on searching for jobs.