Confidence of professionals on steady rise as lockdown eases: Survey

The confidence level of Indian professionals is on a steady rise with 1 in 3 expecting their personal savings to increase in the next six months, amid easing of Covid-19 lockdown curbs, a survey said on Tuesday.

The LinkedIn Workforce Confidence Index shows that India's overall confidence is on a steady rise, with a composite score of 53, up from 50 in the June 15-28 survey.

The latest online survey is based on responses from 2,899 members from 13 different industries across the weeks of June 29 to July 26.

The survey showed India's growing confidence towards personal finances, with nearly 1 in 3 professionals anticipating their personal savings to increase, while 2 in 5 expecting their personal spending to stay the same in the next 6 months.

However, this optimism fades when it comes to job security, as the survey said that employees in small and midsized business (1-200 workers) are less confident about holding onto their jobs than large enterprise workers (10,000 or more employees).

"With low cash reserves and on-off lockdowns across several cities, business sustenance for small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) continues to be a challenging affair," the survey said.

As per the survey findings, 46 per cent of professionals from Recreation & Travel, and 39 per cent of professionals from the Consumer Goods industry will return to work as soon as they are allowed to. However, 1 in 2 Software & IT employees said they will continue working remotely for now.

Moreover, professionals from Transportation & Logistics, and Media & Communications are also wary about returning to the physical workplace.

Risk of exposure, poor sanitation, and lack of workplace policies are some of the factors that worry professionals and dissuade them from going back to office, the survey said.

The survey uses a scale from (-) 100 to (+) 100 to reflect professionals' current sentiments about the jobs market, their financial status, career progression, and their expectations going forward.