Although levels of concern among Irish consumers about the increase in the daily cost of living remain the same as before Christmas, the proportion of people now extremely concerned has increased, the latest Pulse report by Dentsu shows. Those most concerned are women at 80 per cent, the C2DEF cohort at 78 per cent and 25-34 year olds at 84 per cent.
In January, Dentsu asked 1,000 Irish adults about their intentions this year against the backdrop of the increasing cost of living and the impact that it was having on their wellbeing. As was discovered in December, three-quarters of consumers are worried about the impact of rising living costs, with almost one in every three saying they are extremely concerned.
In response to this, the Pulse report found that consumers are more likely to take actions to reduce their everyday costs, such as heating the home and grocery shopping (71 per cent), while around one in two consumers recognise the need to take more care of their physical and mental wellbeing as financial constraints are increasingly felt.
Almost three-quarters of consumers intend to take actions to reduce their daily costs as much as possible and a significant proportion (90 per cent) will either carry on taking the same level of action to take care of their health and wellbeing, or do more, this year. There appears to be little appetite to borrow more to help to cover increasing living costs.
Dentsu’s Dael Wood said females are more likely than males to rely on borrowing, both from loan/credit card providers (19 per cent vs. 12 per cent) and family/friends (18 per cent vs. nine per cent). Younger consumers, age 18-34, are the most likely to turn to credit cards/loans (23 per cent) and even more so, borrow from family/friends (27 per cent).
Those age 25-44 are more likely than other age groups to try to reduce their day-to-day costs and those age 18-34 are the most likely to seek more or different work to increase their incomes. There is an opportunity for organisations that are experiencing recruitment and staffing issues to target younger consumers with offers of flexible and part-time work.
