Reference period: September 2020 Released 24/09/2020
Key statistics
- Almost one third of businesses expect modifications put in place to manage the impacts of COVID-19 will be kept long-term
- Two in five employing businesses currently have staff teleworking
- One in three employing businesses expect staff hours to increase when conditions stabilise
Business Impacts of COVID-19 Survey
Topics covered in this release include:
- Modifications to business operations
- Teleworking and expected changes to working hours
- Business revenue, operating expenses and employment
The collection was conducted through a telephone survey between 10 September and 16 September 2020. The sample size was 2,000 businesses and the final response rate was 64% (1,279 responding businesses).
This release forms part of the suite of additional products that the ABS is producing to measure the impact of COVID-19. Future information collected in this survey will evolve to maintain relevance in a changing environment.
Modifications to business operations
Businesses reported whether they were operating under modified conditions as a result of COVID-19. They also provided information on some of the types of modifications made, and whether these were expected to be retained long term (i.e. for more than 6 months).
Data on modifications to business operations and the types of modifications made was also previously collected in June 2020.
Almost two-thirds (64%) of all businesses reported that they were operating under modified conditions due to COVID-19 in September 2020. This compares to almost three-quarters (73%) of all businesses that were operating under modified conditions in June 2020.
By employment size, the proportion of all businesses that were operating under modified conditions in September 2020 were:
- 64% of small businesses (i.e. 0-19 persons employed)
- 73% of medium businesses (i.e. 20-199 persons employed)
- 78% of large businesses (i.e. 200 or more persons employed)
Businesses in Arts and recreation services were the most likely to be operating under modified conditions (86%) compared with businesses in Electricity, gas, water and waste services (45%) which were the least likely.
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