Employees who prefer working from home are finding it tougher to navigate the job market, the latest YouGov-Mint-CPR Millennial Survey suggests. Around 54% of the respondents who find remote work useful said finding a job was “difficult" nowadays, whereas the share was 43% among those who see benefits of working from the office. Among those with mixed feelings on remote work, the share was midway—around 50% find a job-hunt tough (see chart 1). The findings are based on two questions asked to working respondents in the survey. One gave them a list of eight potential outcomes of remote work—four positive, and four negative, ranging from impact on career growth and work discipline to family time and social bonds. The other question asked them how easy or difficult it was to find a job these days. Overall, most urban Indians felt it is difficult to find a job (refer to Part 1 of the series: https://bit. ly/3XP226R), but that share dropped among those who are fine going to the office. View Full Image Graphic: Mint Share Via “People who prefer to work from home (WFH) are observing that the number of remote jobs available are on a decline," said Aditya Narayan Mishra, director of CIEL HR Services, reacting to the survey’s finding. “Remote workers are facing the heat of their employers, many of whom are asking them to return to office, with some also saying, in formal and informal ways, that those who don’t could see their growth get hampered as compared to other colleagues. " Pros and cons Around 39% of the respondents saw WFH as somewhat positive, 26% saw it as somewhat negative, and 26% were fence-sitters. A minuscule share was strongly positive or strongly negative. Women, married individuals and those living in larger families were more likely to see a positive impact of working from home (see charts 2 and 3). The online survey is conducted biannually by Mint, in association with survey partner YouGov India and Delhi-based think-tank Centre for Policy Research. The latest round, the ninth, was held in December 2022, with 9,698 respondents across 207 cities and towns. Over 42% were post-millennials (born after 1996), and 40% were millennials (born between 1981 and 1996). Three years after remote work entered the mainstream, what is making it click for some and not for others? At the heart of it, it’s career and family. Out of the four potential benefits listed, the most popular one was that WFH enabled individuals to spend more time with family, an option picked by 39% of the respondents. But 30% feared the same proposition. Also, 37% said WFH could improve career growth (see chart 4), while 26% feared reduced chances of promotion. Among working millennials, women were slightly more likely (41%) than men (37%) to feel that WFH can improve career growth. But they were also nearly as likely as men (28% versus 27%) to believe it can cut down chances of promotions. Women were more likely (44% versus 38% for men) to see WFH as a way to get more time with family and kids, but a sizable chunk (33%) also saw it as a limitation as they would feel obligated to spend more time on family and house chores. MINT PREMIUM See All Premium Amazon fund leads $104 mn investment in FreshToHome Premium In 2023, your remote work comes at a cost Premium The multiplier impact of more expressways Premium RBI’s ‘seventh horse of the sun’ is an analogy that doe . . . Gender roles In August 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed the view that remote work and flexible workplaces could help more women participate in the labour force. In a country with an unusually low presence of women in the formal workforce, could WFH be a middle ground to navigate family norms? We tried to find out in the survey if Indians indeed see any link between WFH and gender. We asked respondents who is more likely to need the option of remote work: men, women, both, or neither. Over half (55%) did not see any need to pick between men and women for a WFH policy—51% felt both needed it equally, and 4% said neither did. Another 23% saw a greater need for women, and 22% for men. Young, single urban Indians held the strongest bias towards men staying home: 25% would rather have men work remotely, against 20% women, contrary to the whims of the social machinery. But among married individuals, the figures flipped drastically, with a clear need seen for women to work remotely. Around 28% picked women, against 18% for men. Among those in their forties and above, the breakdown was 25% to 20% (see chart 5). Interestingly, it’s mainly women who felt WFH is a need for women. The male respondents, on their part, would like remote work themselves rather than for women. For those making a case for WFH for women, the top reason was more time with children and family (30%), followed by the need to avoid commute hours due to time, safety or traffic (20%). Among those who picked men, the top reason was again family time, but with only 24% votes. The need to focus at work tasks better at home (22%) was also important. For both sets, household chores were the least important reason in a list of five. This is the second part of a series about the survey’s findings. The next part will look at urban India’s evolving political preferences. Note that these surveys are skewed towards urban well-to-do netizens, with 82% respondents falling under the NCCS-A socio-economic category of consumers. To read full methodology note, click here. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Tanay Sukumar Tanay leads Mint's data journalism team. His role involves editing and overseeing the newspaper's diverse data offerings, ranging from deep analytical pieces to bite-sized social media charts. Read more from this author Catch all the Industry News , Banking News and Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates . More Less Topics plain-facts.