We are worrying less and less about Covid-19 & more and more about jobs and unemployment
As the pandemic becomes endemicvi and we rewire our entire lives to a new normal, our focus shifts back to jobs and the economy, to the unresolved issues of inequality and reversing climate changevii – issues that are not new but that feel more imminent to resolve. We are worrying less and less about COVID-19 (on average, worldwide, our collective concern has almost halved since last year to just over 1 in 3 people) and more and more about jobs and unemployment (32% of people), poverty and social inequality (31% of people)viii according to IPSOS. We worry about our energy bills and our booster jabs, but we also worry about the environment and the sustainability policies of our companies.
As we walked into COP26 as many as three quarters of UK adults said they were worried about the environment according to the ONS. Younger adults were on average slightly more likely to be very anxious than older groups, 11% and 12% for 16-24- and 25–34-year-olds compared with 9% and 8% for 35-44- and those aged 45 years and older – although, surprisingly more adults in younger age groups reported not feeling anxious at all, 22% of 16-24 year-olds compared with 9% of those aged 70 years and over. This indicates a collective sense of urgency to resolving the long unresolved. We see this reflected in political discourse as much as in social media conversations, with demand for action heightened in the last year – and we can only expect this impatience to grow.
vi https://www.economist.com/the-world-ahead/2021/11/08/covid-19-is-likely-to-fade-away-in-2022 vii https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/research/research-areas/impact/decisive-decade-organising-climate-action#:~:text=The%20report%20is%20part%20of,UN%20climate%20chief%20Christiana%20Figueres. viii https://www.ipsos.com/en/what-worries-world-august-2021