New Delhi: According to a new global survey by Ipsos, a global market research company, on COVID-19, at least 2 in 3 urban Indians (69%) oppose the reopening of businesses just yet, as it could put lives at risk, with coronavirus still lurking around.
Countries echoing similar, cautious view, include Brazil (71%), South Korea (65%), Mexico (62%), Japan (62%), UK (62%) and US (60%). China (65%) and Italy (64%) and also France (59%) and Russia (57%) on the contrary strongly believe, they need to get the economy going, as they believe the risk is minimal.
“While companies are reopening their offices after a hiatus – they are sanitizing and asking employees to work in a staggered way (ensuring partial attendance), with social distancing, etc. Yet, it involves risk and Indians being worried is understandable, as the coronavirus has proven to be resilient and has no cure yet and the pandemic has not tapered off. It is making people anxious as well, the last wave has shown. At this stage, the government and companies should focus on messaging that reassures people to resume work and that also tells people that we have to learn to live with the virus for some time,” says Amit Adarkar, CEO, Ipsos India.
Job situation post lockdown
Across all the 16 markets covered in the survey, Indians were found to be most optimistic of jobs returning, once all the restrictions were lifted. At least 73% of urban Indians (of those polled) hold this view. The US, Australia, and Brazil displayed polarized views. The markets most pessimistic about jobs returning were France (69%), Spain (62%), South Korea and South Africa (61%), Italy (60%), Japan (58%), the U.K. (57%), and Russia (52%). They do not expect the job market to look up and the jobs lost during the pandemic are not likely to re-emerge.
“We are seeing some bit of buzz in a few sectors which are bouncing back from the shadows of the pandemic,” added Adarkar.
These are the results from Essentials, an Ipsos weekly global syndicated study examining the opinions and behaviors as countries move through the pandemic. These results were collected May 21st to 24th, 2020 using an online methodology 16,000 adults aged 18-74 in Canada and the United States and 16-74 in Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, India, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, and the United Kingdom.
Please get in touch with [email protected], COO, Global Affairs, Ipsos, for queries.
