Social, Economic, Health Impacts Persist as Americans Grapple with Convergence of Pandemic and Civil Unrest

American households continue to experience hardships and implement behavioral changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, though some indicators suggest modest economic improvement over the past month. Compared to late-April and early-May, results from the COVID Impact Survey’s third week of data collection (June 1-8, 2020) provide some indications of growing economic optimism and changing behaviors to mitigate COVID-19 exposure.  

Key Findings and Implications

• While economic indicators are beginning to show some signs of improvement and optimism on employment, overall insecurity measures for finances and food remain elevated. Insecurity measures, in particular, offer opportunities for policymakers to consider rapid shifts that could result in immediate support to alleviate challenges faced by some in the American public.  

• As states and cities are re-opening, respondents report fewer personal plans and activities are affected by closures and restrictions. This suggests some signs that parts of the country are returning to more normal operations. 

• Compliance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendation to wear facemasks is now at 90 percent, compared to 78 percent in April and 84 percent in May. Ongoing consistency from elected leaders and public health officials about the role of facemasks during phased re-opening will likely support continued participation in the practice in coming months.  

• Declines in willingness to use apps and websites for tracking symptoms as well as decreases in the willingness to be tested for COVID-19 continue to suggest policymakers must devise and allocate resources for education about the benefits of such efforts and how privacy will be protected to encourage participation if they are to be implemented at scale. 

• As some states and cities across the country begin re-opening, three-in-four households are continuing to avoid some or all restaurants in June, the same reported by the COVID Impact Survey in April. This suggests ongoing concerns about food safety for the American public that may challenge the re-opening of this segment of the economy. As restaurants pursue re-opening, they will likely need to clearly communicate with potential customers what safeguards are being adopted. 

COVID Impacts on Personal Plans and Activities

As states and cities across the country begin to relax restrictions put in place in response to COVID-19, households are now reporting fewer restrictions than in April and May. On average, households reported impacts in 6 of 19 activities included in the survey like school closures, bans on gatherings and business closures, compared to an average of 7 in April and May. One-in-five households nationally report 10 or more different activities were still impacted in June while four-in-five reported at least one plan had been impacted. 

Employment Impacts

Despite waves of furloughs and layoffs reported in recent national economic indicators, economic optimism remains relatively high with 62 percent of households indicating they expect to be employed in the next 30 days. On average, workers reported a slight uptick in time worked, with 38 hours, compared to 36 in both April and May. The share of workers who reported working for someone else and had hours over 40 in a week increased from 63 percent in April to 67 percent in June. Among those not working, the number reporting being laid-off or furlough decreased over the same period, from 21 percent in April to 15 percent in June.

Financial and Food Security

Household security measures continue to suggest ongoing challenges faced by many across the country. A total of 14 percent of households indicate they would not be able to cover an unexpected $400 expense, slightly below the 16 percent in May. The change from April and May is relatively modest, despite federal economic stimulus funds for households.  

Food insecurity remains elevated, with 20 percent of households indicating in June they often or sometimes ran out of food before having enough money to buy more. The measure did slightly improve from April (23%) and May (22%). Even higher shares worried about food insecurity. Across the country food insecurity varies greatly with sampled regions above the national average including Louisiana (37%) and Texas (31%), while other regions like Colorado (13%) and Oregon (14%) are well below. The absence of enough food was reportedly more common nationally for individuals without a high school diploma (45%), households with less than $30,000 in income (40%), households with children (27%), and Hispanic households (33%).

Eight percent of households also received or tried to apply for assistance from a food pantry, unchanged from last month. In regions, some sampled areas were well above the national average for food pantries including Birmingham (19%), Chicago (15%), New York (15%), and Montana (14%). 

Physical and Mental Health Impacts

One percent of respondents nationally in June indicated they had been told by a doctor they had COVID-19. While a relatively low share of respondents indicated exposure themselves, five percent reported knowledge of a family member or friend who died from COVID-19 or respiratory illness since March, the same level reported by the COVID Impact Survey in May. The estimates remain unchanged in many regions, including in New York (17% in all three waves). 

Considerable changes were observed for key mental health indicators over the past month. Nationally, 38 percent of respondents indicated they felt hopeless about the future one or more days in the past week, unchanged from April. Feelings of depression followed a similar pattern with 40 percent of respondents indicating a sense of depression one or more days in the past week. Some demographics more frequently reported a sense of hopelessness and depression, including households with children (43% and 44%, respectively), households with income less than $30,000 (45% and 46%), and respondents ages 18-22 (43% and 60%). 

Notable changes were also observed in mental health measures by race and ethnicity comparing May to June results from the COVID Impact Survey. The sense of hopelessness for non-Hispanic blacks decreased by 6 percentage points, from 34 percent in May to 28 percent in June and was well below the reported level for whites (40%) and Hispanics (43%). Similarly, non-Hispanic black respondents reported a 10 percentage point decrease in depression, from 40 percent in May to 31 percent in June, also below the level for whites (42%, a 7 percentage points rise over May’s level) and Hispanics (44%, a 4 percentage points rise over May’s level). 

Behavioral Responses to COVID

As the pandemic enters its fourth month affecting the American people, behavioral responses are also adjusting accordingly. Ninety percent of respondents nationally indicated wearing facemasks, consistent with CDC recommendations. Several regions fall below that rate, including Montana (78%), Oregon (81%), and Minnesota (83%). Other regions are well above the national average, including New York (98%), Baltimore (98%), and California (97%).

Altogether respondents were asked about 19 different behaviors and reported taking an average of 8.4 in June, such as wearing facemasks, social distancing, minimizing contact with high-risk people, or working from home. A total of 38 percent of households indicated taking 10 or more actions and 99 percent of households made at least one behavioral change in response to COVID-19.

While nationally 75 percent of households reported avoiding crowded or public places, consistent with the national average in May, notable reductions in some sampled regions were observed comparing April and May, including Minnesota (69% in June, compared to 84% in April and 81% in May), Colorado (72% in June, compared to 80% in April and May), Missouri (75% in June, compared to 81% in April and 79% in May), and Phoenix (77% in June, compared to 82% in April and 81% in May). Nationally there was no statistically significant difference in avoiding crowded or public places reported by non-Hispanic blacks compared to whites.

The American people continue to report some behaviors implemented during COVID-19 even as economies are re-opening and restrictions are relaxed. For example, 72 percent avoided restaurants in June, compared to 69 percent in May, and 32 percent worked from home, compared to 31 percent in May. 

Other measures expected to continue in the near-term to prevent the spread of coronavirus similarly held steady, suggesting public health campaigns to promote awareness of these behaviors may be paying off across the country. 83 percent reported social distancing and 75 percent avoided crowded places, mostly unchanged compared to surveys in April and May.

Some differences in response behaviors appeared in early June across age groups. These trends are consistent with data collected in May. However, younger individuals are reporting higher levels of participation in certain behavioral responses. Elderly individuals ages 65 or older were more likely than 18-22-year-olds to avoid restaurants (78% v. 62%), avoid public or crowded places (80% v. 70%), and maintain social distancing (91% v. 79%).

Using Technology to Monitor Symptoms and Willingness to Be Tested 

Perceptions about the willingness to participate in tracking and monitoring programs using apps and websites continues to decline. While in April, 48 percent of households were likely to install apps on their phones asking questions about symptoms, only 38 percent indicated the same in June. For apps that track locations and send push notifications, 41 percent were likely in June, down 9 percentage points from May.  The trend was similar for using websites to track symptoms and receive recommendations, down 7 percentage points since May, from 48 percent to 41 percent. 

Modest declines in willingness to be tested were also reported by households in June. While in April, 71 percent of respondents indicated a willingness to be tested using a swab, that declined by 9 percentage points to 62 percent in June. Similarly, 65 percent of respondents indicated they were likely to be willing to participate in immunity or resistance testing with blood samples, a decline of 6 percentage points from 71 percent in April.

Declines in willingness for swab and blood testing are consistent across the income spectrum, though high income households over $125,000 were more likely for both methods (72% and 73%, respectively) than households with less than $30,000 in income (59% and 64%). However, changes in testing were not consistent by race and ethnicity. Non-Hispanic blacks reported little change in likelihood, while willingness for non-Hispanic whites decreased by 7-percentage points for swabs and 6 percentage points for blood draws between April and June. For Hispanics, willingness for swab testing decreased from 77 percent in April to 57 percent in June, a 20-percentage point decline; similarly, for blood testing willingness declined for Hispanics from 72 percent in April to 62 percent in June. 

Sizable declines were also observed in some regions of the country for testing willingness. For swabs to test for positive infections, notable declines from May occurred in Minnesota (-16 p.p. from 80% to 64%), Baltimore (-12 p.p. from 86% to 74%), and New York (-10 p.p. from 77% to 67%).

About the COVID Impact Survey

The COVID Impact Survey is an effort to provide national and regional statistics about health, the economy, and social dynamics in the United States. The COVID Impact Survey is unique in that its methodological approach relies on an address-based random sample and also includes a range of questions about physical health, mental health, and economic security on a single survey. The results provide reliable estimates at the national level as well as for 10 states and 8 metropolitan areas, including for California, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New York, Oregon, Texas, Atlanta, Baltimore, Birmingham, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Phoenix, and Pittsburgh.