One in eleven Australians expect the COVID crisis will change their lives forever, ABS survey reveals

Nearly 10 per cent of Australians say their lives will never return to normal in the wake of the coronavirus, and close to a fifth believe it will take longer than a year.

One in eleven Australians believe their lives will never return to normal in the wake of the coronavirus, and nearly a fifth believe it will take longer than a year.

The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics survey on the household impact of the coronavirus also revealed 47 per cent of respondents anticipated life would return to normal within 12 months, including 51 per cent of men and 43 per cent of women.

In contrast, the ABS also reported that 16 per cent of Australians said their lives were already back to normal.

The survey was conducted between July 6 and July 10, when the second virus wave of infections had hit Melbourne, triggering a six-week lockdown of the country’s second largest city.

 

The ABS said Victorians were twice as likely to say they were unsure when life would return to normal, at 16 per cent of respondents versus 8 per cent for the rest of Australia.

Only one in 50 people in Victoria reported their lives were back to its pre-COVID rhythms or had not changed, against one in five for the rest of the country.

Social distancing measures remain in force to various degrees around the nation. Outside of locked-down areas in Victoria, cafes, restaurants and pubs across the country are operating with restrictions on how many patrons can be served at any time, and Australians remain wary of travelling and being in large groups.

The ABS also asked Australians what aspects of life under the coronavirus restrictions they would like to outlast the health crisis.

Nearly three in 10 said they would like to continue spending more time with family and friends post-COVID, and 27 per cent said they’d like the reduced environmental impact to be a legacy of the pandemic.

A quarter said they would like to continue to spend less or save more, and the same expressed a desire to keep working from home. A slower pace of life was an aspect 23 per cent hoped would extend beyond the end of social distancing restrictions.

Close to 30 per cent, however, said there was nothing about COVID life they would like extended beyond the pandemic.

There was also some evidence that the job rebound since the depths of the crisis in April has stalled and may even have gone into reverse.

The survey showed 63.5 per cent of respondents had a job in early July, down from 64.6 per cent in mid-June.

One in nine Australians have experienced one or more changes to their job status between early March and early July.