Hiring rate, female workforce participation increase in India

Hiring rate and female workforce participation have increased in India, according to a 'Labour Market Update' put out by online professional network LinkedIn.

Hiring picked up by 25 percentage points by end of July as compared to June, it said. Female workforce participation increased from 30 per cent in April to reach 37 per cent at the end of July.

'Labour Market Update' is a monthly update on hiring trends and insights based on LinkedIn's 'Economic Graph', a digital representation of the Indian economy built by conducting a close analysis of actions of more than 69 million members in India, it said in a statement.

Insights from its second edition show that hiring continues to recover, gender parity has improved, and disruptive digital skills can help to increase the resilience of professionals to challenges in the current job market, it said. One possible reason for an increase in female workforce participation could be the strong support from live-in help and grandparents, as well as more flexible working hours with remote working schemes, which has allowed more women to enter the workforce despite schools and childcare facilities being closed during the lock-down, it said.

"The lockdown, which promoted acceptance of the work from home concept supported by flexible work hours, has emerged as an opportunity for women to rebuild their careers and start afresh," said Pei Ying Chua, APAC Lead Economist, Economic Graph team at LinkedIn. With the exception of the manufacturing sector, female representation across most industries increased during the lockdown period and continued to rise in subsequent months.

The increase in female representation was also more pronounced in industries which already had higher gender parity to begin with (such as Corporate Services, Education, Health Care and Media & Communications). The data also showed that talent with more advanced digital skills have weathered the Covid-19 storm better than those with basic digital skills, it was stated.