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The workers who won in the pandemic — and those who lost

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The Covid-19 pandemic and concurrent economic collapse have been remarkable for their uneven impact. The coronavirus has decimated elderly populations while largely sparing children. The U.S. GDP plunged by the sharpest rate ever, while the stock market posted record highs.

Now we have data confirming another way that we’re really not all in this together. A new survey of American adults by The Harris Poll in collaboration Kumanu, a well-being technology company, reveals who’s entering 2021 doing better or worse — financially, mentally, physically and existentially — by 13 job sectors.

There are two big surprises to us.

The first: How many working Americans say they are doing better today across the board than they were before Covid-19 erupted in the U.S. nine months ago. They include teachers and others in education, despite how fundamentally their jobs were changed by remote learning.

The second: How much worse most essential workers feel. Those in food and hospitality suffered by all four measures, as expected, but so did those in another handful of sectors including public services which takes in police and firefighters. And while they saw more purpose from their work, those in health care say both their mental and physical health worsened during the pandemic along with their financial position.

There’s one thing our poll substantiates that probably shouldn’t surprise anyone: It’s a great time to be an investment banker or a techie. And pity the poor consultants, stuck at home and pining for face time with their clients.

When it comes to finances, five groups have come out solidly ahead during the pandemic, according to our survey of American workers: education, financial services, retail, sales and marketing, and technology. In finance and tech, more than half of employees say they gained financially in 2020. Those in retail did even better, with 65% saying they had more money at year-end and only 11% reporting they were worse off as Covid-19 bonus pay and e-commerce hiring more than offset layoffs and furloughs.

Groups losing significant financial ground include consulting, real estate, and transportation. Only 2% of consultants say their finances improved, while 59% in real estate say theirs deteriorated.

Asked to assess their mental and physical well-being, respondents were about evenly split. Reporting better overall health were workers in construction, education, financial services, retail, sales and marketing, and tech. The biggest gains in physical health were in construction — 58% feeling better and 10% feeling worse — while the biggest improvements in mental health were in sales and marketing, with 56% reporting feeling better and 13% feeling worse. Those is tech stand out, too, with 51% ending up physically and 54% mentally.