ABS releases results of COVID-19 impact on business survey

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has found 49 per cent of businesses surveyed between March 16 – 23 had suffered “adverse impacts” from the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.

Three-thousand businesses were surveyed, and responses received from 1,217 (41 per cent) of those. The most common impact in the two weeks before the survey was reduced local demand (82 per cent) with 36 per cent suffering staff shortages. 81 per cent of respondents expected reduced demand and 59 per cent expected staff shortages in the coming months.

The results should be read – advises the ABS – with the knowledge that the response rate of 41 per cent is lower than average for their collections, and non-response could itself be an indication of adverse impacts from COVID-19.

The results were mostly collected before the Phase 1 Social Distancing Measures, announced March 22.

More detail can be seen here.

Picture: A word cloud based on the adverse impacts for first two weeks of March

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