Only 40% jobseekers think layoffs won't happen, finds survey

Around 50% of job seekers said they are utilising this time to focus on up-skilling, as per a survey.

New Delhi: Those who have been laid off make up about 10% of jobseekers and nearly 60% of jobseekers said that layoffs have either happened or are likely to happen, according to a survey of 50,000 job-seekers by job portal Naukri.com.

The rest 40% did not think layoffs would happen.

Around 50% of those surveyed said they are utilising this time to focus on up-skilling. About 50% said they were brushing up on domain knowledge, while 29% said they had enrolled or would enrol for an up-skilling course. The survey also found that the jobseekers from IT, pharmaceuticals, medical/healthcare and BFSI industries were less impacted by layoffs and salary cuts as compared to their counterparts from other industries such as aviation, hospitality, e-commerce and BPO/ITES industries.

About 28% said that salary cuts have been announced, while 34% said it would most likely be announced.

'Better career opportunities' was the leading reason for seeking a job (70%), followed by salary cuts (16%) and fear of being laid off (14%).

The percentage of people who thought that salary increments would be in the range of 0-% shot up to 63% during Covid-19, compared to 18% pre-Covid-19. Earlier, 77% of people surveyed thought increments would be in the range of 6-20%.