ANZ and Roy Morgan have joined forces for the ANZ Roy Morgan Financial Wellbeing Indicator – a measure of the financial wellbeing of Australians that is paying particular attention to the impacts of COVID-19 at present.  

The survey revealed that 44 per cent of Australians aged between 14 and 39 had had their finances affected in some way, whether by being stood down or made redundant, working for reduced pay, or working less hours.

According to the associated report, the burden of negative employment impacts also fell disproportionately on people who were already experiencing lower financial wellbeing.

What’s also worrying is the fact that more than a third of young Australian adults and families had less than one month’s income in savings to fall back on even before the crisis began.

It suggests that “the economic impacts of COVID-19 will be greater for those least able to absorb the shock”.

Weighing in on the findings, ANZ deputy chief executive officer Alexis George said that “as a group, young people are less likely to have been actively saving before the pandemic began and many of them have also had their work hours or income reduced, so it has been incredibly tough for them.”

There’s also no apparent end in sight – the report considered the financial wellbeing of a large group of Australians as “still in the balance”.

“With government support currently in place, the full impact of COVID-19 on employment is yet to be resolved,” it indicated.

It’s unclear how many people who have been affected by redundancy or other negative work experiences will resume employment once government support does lift.