Employed Indians are optimistic about their job security even as corporates globally are handing out more pink slips to sail through the tough times, says a report.

As many as 62 per cent of employed Indians surveyed by TNS and Gallup International felt confident that their present jobs are safe.

However, 57 per cent of citizens in India expect that unemployment would increase in the country during 2009, market information provider TNS said in its Voice of the People End of the Year Survey.

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"Optimism runs high and the Indian employees show resilience. It seems despite economic slowdowns and reports of downsizing there is an overall confidence amongst the employed in India," TNS India executive director Chhavi Bhargava said.

The survey found that only 36 per cent of the employed population thinks that there is a chance that they may be the one to lose their job.

Although 8 per cent of those currently employed in India would not even bother to look for work if they were to lose their jobs this year, the survey noted.

"There is a feeling among the employed Indians that 'My job is secure -- difficulties if any are for the others not me,'" Bhargava added.

However, interviewees here are quite optimistic about their prospect of qualifying and does not figure much in the percentage of population which feel that the number of jobless would increase in 2009.

"In India, where 57 per cent forecast a rise in unemployment this year, a third of the workers interviewed (31 per cent) believe they would be able to find a new job fairly quickly, whilst 56 per cent fear it may take longer," the TNS study said.

Of the 11 countries surveyed by TNS, employed people in India were the most optimistic that unemployment would not rise in 2009.

In Hong Kong, 84 per cent respondents felt that 2009 will see a rise in unemployment, while both in China and Singapore, 78 per cent of the surveyed lot expressed fear that unemployment would increase, the survey said.

Besides, India ranks at the seventh place when it comes to feeling that the present job is safe.

In India, 62 per cent of the employed youth feels that the present job is secured, while 81 per cent of those surveyed in Australia and 79 per cent in New Zealand think that their jobs are safe, the survey noted.

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