43% Startups and MSMEs Plan to Hire Women over Next 6 Months: SurveyA survey conducted by LocalCircles claims that women workers were among the worst hit in the workforce adjustments made by businesses in the last eight months as the covid-19 pandemic impacted their business and revenue adversely

Employment situation for women is set to improve as startups and medium, small and micro enterprises (MSMEs) plan to ramp up hiring of female employees in the coming months, shows a survey by community platform LocalCircles.

About 43 per cent of the 7,000 respondents said they plan to hire women employees over the next six months. On the flipside, the survey also shows that women workers were among the worst in the workforce adjustments made by businesses in the last eight months as the covid-19 pandemic impacted their business and revenue adversely.

A large number of start-ups and MSMEs had reduced their workforce, with 31 per cent of them reducing their women workforce. Moreover, not a single business reported increase in the number of women employees during the course of the eight months of covid-19 pandemic.

A more concerning insight to have come out of the survey is that 23 per cent respondent enterprises said they had no women in the workforce before the pandemic hit and don't have now either.

"The Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) among women in India, is one of the lowest in the world and appears to have slid even further during the COVID-19 pandemic," the survey said.

Of the total surveyed respondents, 7 per cent said women in their workforce have been reduced by 50-100 per cent, 12 per cent said women employees have reduced by 25-50 per cent and 12 per cent said the reduction has been up to 25 per cent.

"With growth coming back in many sectors, and given that Work from Home has become a new normal for many of the technology driven businesses and for white collar jobs, even in traditional businesses, it is likely to help more women find job opportunities in the coming months," the survey stated.