COVID-19 a “middle-class disaster”

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Middle-class professionals in inner-city suburbs have been hit hardest by the COVID-19 downturn, according to consulting firm Taylor Fry. This is because income support like JobSeeker and JobKeeper don’t make up for losses of employment income:

“You’ve seen in the last few weeks, thousands of jobs lost in accounting, legal and professional services firms,” [Taylor Fry principal Alan Greenfield] said. “People on incomes in the $50,000 to $100,000 range are the ones likely to have the least buffer but biggest financial fall in income”…

“It’s a middle-class disaster,” former NSW MP and now Taylor Fry director Pru Goward said. “The impact of this has been much more likely to be felt in middle-class households than in poor households and that is a very big difference between what we’re seeing now and the Great Depression of the 1930s.”

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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.