More people think it will take longer for their life to return to normal than they did early in the lockdown period, says the Office for National Statistics.
In the four days up to 7 June, nearly one in four people (24.6%) said that it will take more than a year for their life to return to normal, or that it never would.
That is 5.1 million more than said so in the 10 days leading up to 12 April.
This was true for both young and old people. For example, more young people, aged between 16 and 29 years, thought it would take over a year or never to go back to normal over the recent weeks, going from 7.7% at the start of lockdown to 20.8% in the four days ending 7 June, as it had for those aged 60 years and over.
Furthermore, even after lockdown restrictions had been eased, a greater proportion of employees felt that their work was being affected, with 64.8% saying so in the four days to 24 May, up from 47.7% in the 11 days leading up to 10 May.
Workplaces slowly re-opening safely, despite with reduced numbers and social distancing, could impact expectation on work being affected. This was reflected in a growing trend in the four days to 24 May surrounding concern about health and safety in the workplace.
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As more people continue to report that their work has been impacted, they also had lower expectations for the general economic situation for the year ahead, and higher expectations for unemployment to rise, said the ONS.
These expectation figures are comparable with those recorded in the 2008 global financial recession.
People’s expectations for the general economic situation fell at their fastest rate between the period before lockdown in March 2020, and April 2020, then fell further in May 2020 to negative 51.5, which was slightly lower than in any month during 2008 and 2009.
People’s expectations of their financial situation fell at the fastest rate since records began in the month up to April 2020, but recovered slightly in May. The rating remains slightly more positive than it had at the height of the 2008 recession.
