Manufacturing, travel and hospitality hardest hit.

 

A new survey by the Roy Morgan research company has confirmed the increasing impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus on a wide range of business sectors.

 

In mid-March more than 60 per cent of Australian businesses report being affected by the COVID-19 coronavirus, up a “massive” 45 percentage points from a month ago, according to  Morgan’s special Snap SMS Survey of 1148 Australian businesses. 

 

Around 17 per cent of businesses report being affected ‘A great deal’ by coronavirus (up 15 per cent points from a month ago), 31 per cent have been ‘somewhat’ affected (up 23 per cent points) and a further 12 per cent (up seven percentage points) have been affected ‘A little’. 

 

Only 40 per cent of businesses now report not being affected ‘at all’ by coronavirus, down from 85 per cent of businesses a month ago.

 

A large majority of 81 per cent of small businesses with an annual turnover of between $1-$5 million report being affected by the coronavirus – higher than businesses of any other size.

 

This compares to 73 per cent of large businesses with an annual turnover of $50 million or above and 71 per cent of medium businesses with an annual turnover of between $5-$50 million.

 

The least affected are the ‘micro’ businesses’ with an annual turnover of less than $1 million. Even so, a majority of 58 per cent of these micro businesses report being affected by the coronavirus.

 

Several industries have been hit especially hard by the coronavirus – more than 70 per cent of businesses in manufacturing (78 per cent), wholesale trade (74 per cent), recreation and personal (83 per cent), information, media and telecommunications (75 per cent), property and business services (74 per cent) and transport, postal and warehousing (72 per cent) report being affected by coronavirus to some degree.

 

Not everyone can work from home

 

The coronavirus outbreak has forced many employers to consider encouraging, or even forcing, their employees to work from home to reduce the possibility of the virus spreading around the community – however this is not possible for all jobs. 

 

Importantly there are several industries for which working from home is simply not an option for all employees. 

 

According to the Morgan survey, more than three-quarters of employees in the retail (87 per cent), transport and storage (82 per cent), manufacturing (82 per cent) and recreation and personal (77 per cent) do no work from home. 

 

There are two industries for which ‘doing some work from home’ is reported by almost half of the workforce, including finance, property and business services (49 per cent have done at least some work from home) and communications (44 per cent).