1 in 10 Indian jobseekers lost job, most think layoff imminent: Survey

Jobseekers from the IT, pharma, medical or healthcare and BFSI industries were less impacted by layoffs and salary cuts as compared to their counterparts from other industries.

At least one in 10 Indian jobseekers has confirmed he or she has been laid off and nearly three in 10 jobseekers fear a layoff is imminent, a new survey by naukri.com revealed on Wednesday.

Out of the 10 per cent of jobseekers who have already been laid off, 15 per cent were from the airlines and e-commerce industry each and around 14 per cent were from the hospitality industry.

Around 13 per cent of the laid-off employees were senior professionals with over 11 years of work experience and were working in either sales (12 per cent), HR and admin (12 per cent), marketing (11 per cent) or operations/supply chain (11 per cent) roles.

While 70 per cent of jobseekers are scouting new jobs for better career opportunities, followed by 16 per cent due to salary cuts and 14 per cent due to the fear of being laid off, said the survey involving 50,000 active jobseekers.

Jobseekers from the IT, pharma, medical/healthcare and BFSI industries were less impacted by layoffs and salary cuts as compared to their counterparts from other industries.

"The survey gives a broad direction of maintaining caution towards the future outlook of the job market. While 10 per cent jobseekers confirmed that they have been laid-off as per the survey, almost 34 per cent fear that a layoff is imminent," said Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer, Naukri.com.

"On the positive side it is heartening to see that more than 50 per cent of jobseekers are focusing on upskilling for better career opportunities and that is a sure shot way of long term career growth," Goyal added.

Majority of jobseekers are utilising the time at hand due to the lockdown for self-development and career advancement.

Data science and analytics courses (22 per cent), followed by digital marketing (20 per cent), and finance and risk management (16 per cent) were among the top courses being picked up by jobseekers to up-skill themselves.

There is a mixed feeling around layoffs and salary cuts among jobseekers.

Nearly 41 per cent of the jobseekers were positive that layoffs are not likely to happen in their organization. These jobseekers were mostly from the BFSI, IT and Pharma industries suggesting a relatively higher job security sentiment in these industries.

"On the other hand, 59 per cent of the jobseekers, mostly from the airlines, hospitality, ecommerce and BPO/ITES industries, confirmed that the layoffs are either already announced or most likely to happen in the coming days," the findings showed.

In the most impacted sectors such as airlines, hospitality and e-commerce, almost half of the jobseekers indicated that salary cuts have been announced in their companies, said the survey.