Overall, Canadians are worried about the following:
- Inflation and cost-of-living (84 percent)
- physical and mental health (70 percent)
- COVID restrictions (66 per cent)
- being able to save money (63 percent)
- managing expenses (54 percent)
- managing debt (47 percent)
- job insecurity (41 percent)
- housing insecurity (35 percent)
Sixty-eight per cent of Canadians plan to increase travel spending and 57 per cent say they would return to pre-pandemic spending levels on social activities, according to a previous Canadian Payroll Association (CPA) survey.
Age differences
However, these worries are far more common among the younger generation compared with the older groups, finds the survey of 1,519 Canadians in January.
Specifically, 18- to 34-year-olds (88 per cent) and 35- to 54-year-olds (87 per cent) are far more concerned about cost-of-living than those aged 55 and up (78 per cent). Physical and mental health are also bigger concerns for younger workers (79 per cent and 72 per cent) than older ones (61 per cent) along with saving money (73 per cent and 69 per cent) compared to older ones (50 per cent).
Job insecurity and housing insecurity are also far bigger concerns among those aged 18 to 34 (53 per cent and 51 per cent, respectively) and those aged 35 to 54 (46 per cent and 37 per cent, respectively) compared with 55-year-olds or older (26 per cent and 22 per cent, respectively).
