- 43% of those surveyed who lived at home/had adult kids at home no longer live together
- Finder's Graham Cooke said kids were disproportionately affected by pandemic-induced unemployment
- Flip side, some adults moved in with their own adult kids
New research has found that many Australians who returned home during the pandemic have now flown the coop once more.
During 2020, 34% of Australian households had at least one adult kid living at home.
Now, 43% of those surveyed no longer live together.
The Finder research is strongly correlated to promising job figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) which shows the unemployment rate has fallen from January’s rate of 6.3% to 5.8% in February – a far cry from the peak of 7.5% in August last year.
The ABS says this is the equivalent of an extra 29,100 jobs being added to the economy, although ABS warns underemployment – people who are employed but are willing to take on more hours – has increased from 8.1% to 8.5%.
This is only 0.8% above what the Reserve Bank deems as the ‘natural rate’ of unemployment – 5%.
Finder’s Head of Consumer Research, Graham Cooke, said the pandemic had disproportionately affected younger Australians in terms of both unemployment and underemployment, hence why many adult children moved back in with their parents.
“Many young adults returned to childhood bedrooms to do Zoom calls and retake their spot at the dining room table.”
“It wasn’t just young people moving back home either – there were also quite a few medically frail parents who moved in with their adult children.”
“But as life returns to semi-normal, many who had lost work have once again found it, and in so doing, left the nest again.”
Graham Cooke, Finder’s Head of Consumer Research
In particular, 24% of Victorian and 23% of New South Wales adult kids moved back in with parents during 2020.
Interestingly, 18% of South Australian parents moved in with an adult kid during 2020.
