two workers on Washington State Ferry wearing safety vests standing on deck

The financial and job-related outlooks of state and local government employees have been widely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, a new survey shows, with examples ranging from employees suffering negative financial impacts in their lives to having difficulty adjusting to how the pandemic has forced their job circumstances to change.

Fifty-six percent of the 1,008 state and local government employees surveyed across the nation said that they and their family's finances have been "negatively" impacted by the pandemic, according to a June-issued report by the Center for State and Local Government Excellence on the survey's results. Meanwhile, 47% of the employees expect the pandemic's financial impact to worsen over the next year, according to the report.

Sixty-three percent of the employees surveyed said it has been difficult adjusting to COVID-19-forced changes in the "nature" of their jobs, such as what they do, where they work, or how they go about the tasks required, the report said.

In other notable results listed in the June-issued report, the survey found that before the pandemic hit just 29 percent of the employees' surveyed had a personal or family emergency-money fund fully funded. And now with the impact of the pandemic, 43% of the surveyed employees with emergency funds believe they will have to take money from their funds to make ends meet in the next year, the report said.

At the same time, 26% of those employees think they'll be forced to reduce the amount of money they're saving for retirement because the pandemic's affect, while 30 percent said they expect to have to reduce the cash amount they're saving in general.

On the job-impact front, 74% of employees surveyed said they're now doing at least some of their job-work remotely, as opposed to 18% of them before the pandemic, said the report. And among the surveyed employees who are working remotely for the first time, or in greater amounts than they were before, 55% of them said it has been "difficult adjusting to remote work," according to the 22-page report on the survey.

Seventy percent of the government employees consider their workplaces to be "at least somewhat risky" with regard to potential exposure those who may have COVID-19.

In looking at the "financial profile" impact of COVID-19, the survey found 65% of the employees are "very or extremely confident" about making financial decisions on their own generally, while 53 percent are "very or extremely confident" about making financial decisions during the pandemic and related economic crisis."

Regarding survey demographics, the report noted, in part, that the majority of respondents were female, white or Caucasian, and worked for state government. The demographics "generally align with the overall state and local government workforce profile," the report said.

The survey was conducted from May 4 to May 20 of this year by the Center for State and Local Government Excellence and by Greenwald & Associates, a public opinion and market research company. The report covering the results was issued by the Washington, D.C.-based government excellence center, which describes itself, in part, as helping "local and state governments become knowledgeable and competitive employers so they can attract and retain a talented and committed workforce.

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State and local government employees not exempt from COVID-19 financial worries

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