National, 18 October 2022: According to data shared by WorkIndia, India’s largest blue-collar recruitment platform, Metro cities Mumbai records a marginal difference of 0.32% followed by Chennai with 3.36% and Bengaluru with 6.66% in job applications received from men and women. Tier II Cities like Mohali and Nasik have also recorded job applications from men and women with nominal difference of 3.42% and 5.44% respectively. The data referred to is collated starting January 2022 till mid-October 2022.

The third largest city in Maharashtra, Nagpur, shows 2.2% difference in job applications by men and women candidates, however, women applicants take a lead here. Overall, the record reveals a 23% difference between women and men job applicants for on-site jobs across India. The figure shows a declining trend since February 2022, which recorded the highest number of women job applicants till now- with 42.98% against 57.2% of male applicants, as compared to mid-October figures of 38.99 % women applicants against 61.01% of male candidates. Tier III towns like Deoria in Uttar Pradesh and Washim in Maharashtra show a staggering 100% difference, with zero female candidate applicant across any industry.

The data also shares industry-wise analysis, underlining that on-site jobs like warehouse and automobile have 0.00% and 1.71% female job applicants respectively. Contrary to general perception, the real estate sector has the highest number of female applicants instead of interior designing, beauticians, or fashion, which hold positions in the sequence later with 85%, 81.29%, and 73% in that order. The interest level of women to apply for jobs that includes physically taxing jobs are still low because of various reasons like regressive thinking, familial responsibilities, non-availability of basic amenities, flexible work hours at work sites, and meagre pay-outs. The age group of 18-30 shows a difference of 20% between the two genders while as the age progresses the gap widens.

Surprisingly, geographies like Medak in Telangana and Porompat in Manipur have reverse scenarios with 100% of women job applicants and 0% of male recruitments. However, the applications are in single digits. Otherwise, an average of a minimum of 30-40% difference is observed between job applications between both genders.

Commenting on the statistics, Nilesh Dungarwal, Co-founder and COO, WorkIndia said, “As the leading platform of blue-collar job recruitment, we at WorkIndia have real-time data and understanding of the prevailing situation in recruitment for blue-collar jobs. As a nation, we need to promote a conducive environment, along with adopting inclusive policies for women to come forth and join the Indian Inc., not just in white-collar jobs but also on-site ones.”

According to last year’s projection, even a nominal 10% rise in women’s recruitment could aid India’s GDP by $ 770 Million in the next three years.

WorkIndia, which began its journey only seven years ago, has seen an upward trend every year and currently records over 2 crore unique application sessions per month and 2.9 crore registered job seekers with a strong presence in 763 cities in India catering to hiring needs of of over 15 lakh SMBs and multiple large corporates like Zomato, HDFC, Tata Motors among many others.