The impact of the second wave of COVID-19 had an understandable and significant impact on Victorians. They felt lonelier, worked fewer hours and had higher levels of psychological distress than their counterparts in the rest of the country.
There was a substantial fall in life satisfaction in Victoria from May to August from 6.78 to 6.08 (on a 0-10 scale).
While hours worked a week rose in the rest of Australia, they stayed relatively flat in Victoria in August.
Levels of anxiety and worry rose by 10% in Victoria from May to August.
Nearly half of Victorians (45%) felt lonely at least some time, 6% higher than for the rest of Australia.
As Victoria faced the second wave of COVID-19, the state’s position on eight out of twelve outcomes worsened relative to the rest of Australia, with strong evidence for the decline in six of those outcomes: Psychological distress, Loneliness, Life satisfaction, Satisfaction with direction of country, Likely to be infected by COVID-19, and Hours worked.
With the Jobkeeper scheme continuing at the original full value, the areas where there was no relative change centred around financial matters. There was no relative change in employment, income, ability to pay accommodation costs or to meet current expenditure.
In January 2020, life satisfaction was slightly higher than the rest of Australia. There was a slight divergence between January to April and May but it was not significant.
Between May and August, however, there was a significant and substantial divergence. Life satisfaction values for the rest of Australia remained reasonably steady - at 6.96 on a 0-10 scale in May then down to 6.85 in August.
But for Victoria there was a significant drop from 6.78 in May to 6.08 in August.
What did worsen was the stress and worry, along with the expected probability of losing one's job.
There was only a small difference between rates of anxiety and worry in Victoria and the rest of Australia before the COVID-19 second wave. While there was an increase for the country between May and August, the rise for Victoria was larger.
Anxiety and worry rates for the rest of Australia rose from 56.6 per cent in May to 60.2 per cent in August while for Victoria, rates increased from 58.9 per cent in May to 68.1 per cent in August.
The levels of psychological distress remained quite even in the rest of Australia between May and August (11.26 to 11.33 on the Kessler 6 scale) but they rose from 12.06 in May in Victoria to 12.50 in August.
Rates of loneliness also rose more in Victoria than in other States or Territories. For most of the country there was no significant difference in rates between May (37.1 per cent) and August (38.8 per cent). But in Victoria the proportion of people who felt lonely one or more days a week rose by nearly 10 per cent (May 35.7 per cent and August 44.5 per cent).
While there was no relative change for four employment and financial measures between Victoria and the rest of Australia, what did have an impact was the increased restrictions in the state.
Hours worked between May and August rose by around two hours a week (from 18.7 hours a week to 20.6). There was a very slight rise in Victoria from 18 to 18.4 hours a week but the rate was still behind the rest of the country.