India Saw Rise In Women’s Workforce During Lockdown: LinkedIn Report

New Delhi: Quashing the global drift, India recorded more women employees entering the workforce during the lockdown. According to a LinkedIn report, by July end, the participation of women in the workforce in the country increased from 30 per cent to 37 per cent in April.

LinkedIn labour market report for July divulged that the hiring of women saw a downfall globally when the lockdowns were imposed, while in India the situation was contrary. In many developed nations, hiring of women saw a U-shaped trajectory in 2020 so far, plunging in April before recovering in June and July.

“In India, work from home has certainly boosted gender parity and emerged as a great equalizer in terms of gender diversity with an increase in female representation across key sectors. 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,” Pei Ying Chua, APAC lead economist, Economic Graph team at LinkedIn, as quoted as saying by LiveMint.

Most of the industries saw an increase in the hiring of women employees during the lockdown, which kept on rising in the coming months, the exception being the manufacturing sector.

More women were hired in corporate services, education, health care, communications, and media. In these fields, women’s presence grew 8 percentage points on an average, whereas for industries like consumer goods, finance, manufacturing and software and IT, the hike was only 4 percent.

The report further stated that, in July, overall hiring saw an increase of 25 percent from June.

According to a McKinsey report, women constitute only 25 per cent of the total labour force in the country.

The Indian government had imposed one of the strictest lockdowns in the country from March 25 due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.