What is the Great Resignation and how it is playing out in India

During the pandemic, more than half of the global workforce experienced a burnout, Forbes India reported, quoting an Indeed survey. After reeling under the pandemic stress, many started moving out of their industries in search of better pay and work conditions.

The trend, initially known as the Great Resignation, is now being seen as the Great Reshuffle, where most people are looking at a job change rather than dropping out.

The Great Resignation has been prevalent in India as well with talent acquisition numbers crossing pre-COVID-19 levels. In July 2021, the job market sequentially grew by 11 percent, Siddhartha Gupta, CEO of Mercer, wrote in The Times of India.

Not only was the workforce changing jobs, they were also pursuing careers outside their industry in India. In September 2021, a study commissioned by Amazon India showed that nearly 51 percent of job-seeking adults were looking for opportunities in industries where they had no or little experience. Around 68 percent were looking to switch industries.

There has been a huge demand for tech-skilled employees in the first nine months of 2021 with the top five IT companies hiring as many as 1.7 lakh people, Forbes India reported.

According to the YouGov-Mint-CPR Millennial Survey, 24 percent of post-millennials reported a job loss compared in 2021 to 17 percent of pre-millennials. Those with poorer education background faced a greater brunt. About 30 percent of people who had just completed school-level education were laid off, while 16 percent of those with professional degrees faced the same fate.

However, by November-December 2021, only 8 percent of those in the job market still remained unemployed at the time of the survey.

The survey, which covered 12,900 respondents across 206 cities, was conducted by Mint, Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research (CPR) and the Indian arm of the global market research firm YouGov.

According to the survey, the outlook on jobs has also brightened amid an improved perception of the country’s economic situation. About 15 percent of the respondents believed that the economy had returned to the pre-pandemic levels compared to 9 percent in a similar survey conducted in late 2020.