Tracking outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic (May 2020) - Job and income losses halted and confidence rising

Abstract

In order to monitor the impacts of COVID-19, the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods has established a COVID-19 impact monitoring survey program. Data collected using Life in AustraliaTM is still the only longitudinal survey of a large, representative sample of Australians with information from the same individuals prior to and during the Coronavirus pandemic. The data summarised in this paper comes from the second wave of the COVID-19 monitoring surveys collected in May 2020. It gives an indication that economic circumstances may have stabilised, and that subjective wellbeing outcomes for Australians are improving. Australians are far less anxious and worried about COVID-19, less likely to think they are going to be infected, are less lonely, and have higher levels of life satisfaction. There has been neither an improvement nor a worsening in labour market outcomes, but Australians are far more positive about their labour market prospects in the future. There has been a continued decline in the per cent of Australians who think they could not get by on their current income, and small increases in income, particularly for those who were at the bottom of the income distribution prior to the spread of COVID-19. Show more