SYDNEY, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- A new report has found that 45 percent of Australians feel their lives worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, among whom those unemployed and people with disability or mental health concerns suffer even much worse impacts.
The Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research at the University of Melbourne on Monday revealed how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted Australians' life course in its latest report of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey.
Using data up until 2020, the report showed that the COVID-19 pandemic saw the biggest rise in job insecurity over the two decades, as almost one in 20 workers (4.5 percent) reported losing their jobs nationally and almost one in 10 Australian employees (9.6 percent) were stood down without pay.
According to the report, the employment of men and women fell sharply to 78.3 percent and 71.6 percent, respectively, while the proportion of the unemployed rose from 4.0 percent to 6.3 percent for men and from 2.9 percent to 4.0 percent for women.
"Significantly, the 2022 employment rate for men was the lowest observed this century and the proportion unemployed was the highest observed this century," the report added.
Meanwhile, a concerning decrease in mental health is also registered, with the sharpest falls seen in younger age groups of 15-24 and 25-34.
"For these two age groups, mental health deteriorated substantially between 2019 and 2020," the report stressed.
As for education, 30 percent of tertiary students reported an interruption of their studies due to the pandemic, with more than half of parents helping home-school their primary-school-aged children, saying that learning during the pandemic was worse for their children.
The HILDA survey is a nationally representative longitudinal study of Australian households managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research.
The institute publishes new findings of the survey annually, providing insights on how different aspects of Australians' lives have changed over time. ■