Despite cases, hospitalizations, and deaths hitting daily records across the country, CivicScience data reveal that Americans’ concern about being in public actually declined this past week.

Also counter to assumption is a change in comfort shopping in stores. Perhaps due to people making last minute holiday purchases, comfort shopping in stores increased quite significantly this week—56% are comfortable doing so now.

However, comfort traveling right now hit the lowest point we’ve observed since May with only 13% of people indicating they would be comfortable traveling or taking a vacation right now.

A mere 6% of Americans have plans to travel via airplane in the next month, which is consistent with last week.

Employment 

While comfort with certain consumer behaviors, like shopping in stores, has increased, there was a drop in comfort returning to the workplace this week.  More respondents now say they’d rather wait a few months before returning to the workplace.

Nearly one-third (30%) of adults reported getting paid less or not at all because of the pandemic this week. Because congress agreed to a stimulus package after months of deliberation, Americans will be getting some relief. Further analysis shows it may not be enough, however.

Additionally, an increasing percentage of U.S. adults (nearly half) are concerned about their current employment situation.

Holiday Plans

Looking at holiday behavior during the pandemic, nearly half of Americans say they ‘definitely won’t’ be celebrating Christmas in-person with friends or family, and one quarter are unsure thus far. However, 3 in 10 say they definitely are.

As we found before, those who are spending the holiday with people in person are less likely to know someone who was diagnosed with COVID-19. 

However, we did find some other interesting cross-tabulations. Unsurprisingly, those spending Christmas with friends or family are also looking forward to the holidays more than their counterparts who will be staying home.

Those who are unemployed are much more likely than employed individuals to be spending the Christmas holiday without friends or family this year.

Finally, Republicans are also more than twice as likely as Independents and Democrats to have plans to celebrate Christmas in person with friends or family.

While one-third of Americans plan to spend Christmas with friends and family, fewer see New Year’s Eve as a priority for getting together this year (17%).

While the pandemic continues to surge, many Americans have their minds made up about the holidays despite the risks associated with making contact with other households. As the winter goes on, and case surges likely to continue, we’ll keep tracking consumer response and behavior.