COVID-19 Effect On Business

03 June 2020 by News Desk   |   SHARE  

COVID-19 has forced 70 per cent of Australian businesses to change how they operate, according to results from the fourth Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) survey on Business Impacts of COVID-19.

ABS Head of Industry Statistics John Shepherd said that the survey also showed that seven in ten businesses (72%) had a decrease in revenue as a result of COVID-19.

Mr Shepherd said: “Businesses that had changed the way they operate were more than twice as likely to report a decrease in revenue compared with those that were trading normally, 83 per cent against 37 per cent.”

Large businesses were almost twice as likely to report a reduction in the total number of employees working for the business, compared with small businesses (41% and 23% respectively).

Of the businesses that were operating under modified conditions, two thirds (67%) reported changes to employee arrangements, compared to 26% of business trading as normal.

The survey also found that almost three quarters of businesses accessed support measures as a result of COVID-19. This included accessing wage subsidies (55%) and other government support measures (38%).

Government restrictions will continue to have an effect with businesses expecting some impact from social distancing measures (71%), restrictions on trading (63%) and travel restrictions (50%) in the next two months.

Businesses in Accommodation and food services (75%) and Arts and recreation services (67%) were the most likely to report that trading restrictions are expected to impact the business over the next two months.

Businesses in these two industries were also the most likely to report that they expect social distancing restrictions to impact the businesses to a great extent over the next two months (50% and 68% respectively).

Businesses in Mining were the least likely to report that they expect trading restrictions and social distancing restrictions to impact the business to a great extent over the next two months; however, 45% of Mining businesses reported that they expect travel restrictions to impact the business to a great extent over the next two months.

Are you thinking about living and working in Australia? Contact us today – send us your CV, fill out our ‘helpline’ form and we will provide an express eligibility assessment free of charge.

https://www.thinkingaustralia.com/migration/eligibility-enquiry

Check out our news page for daily updates https://www.thinkingaustralia.com/news