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Concern over the financial and health effects of Covid-19, which was initially felt most acutely in urban and suburban America, has now spread to rural areas of the country.
The latest Bain/Dynata survey of US consumers, conducted March 30 through April 1, finds that 41% of rural respondents have experienced either a temporary or permanent layoff from their jobs, much higher than urban (26%) and suburban (18%) residents.
Those living in rural areas have also grown increasingly worried about the health effects of Covid-19. While only 7% of rural residents were highly concerned at the beginning of March, 43% were highly concerned as of April 1, vs. 42% for urban respondents and 35% for suburbanites.
Nearly Half of Laid-Off Americans Don’t Expect Their Jobs to Return
Bain’s weekly survey also finds that 15% of those who have closed a business due to Covid-19 don’t expect to reopen.
Coronavirus
The global Covid-19 pandemic has extracted a terrible human toll and spurred sweeping changes in the world economy. Across industries, executives have begun reassessing their strategies and repositioning their companies to thrive now and in the world beyond coronavirus.
Karen Harris is managing director of Bain & Company's Macro Trends Group and is based in the firm's New York office.
Dynata provides first-party data for the Bain Consumer Health Index and provides a nationally representative sample of US adults (weekly) that constitutes the underlying data for this analysis.