This is what a recession in a pandemic looks like: Staying in, drinking, buying furniture

Wednesday's National Accounts tell the story of the worst set of Australian figures since records started in 1959. While the same records weren't kept during the Great Depression, it's believed Australia's economy dropped 10 per cent in that crash - meaning this year's 6.3 per cent annual drop is the worst since then.

And while the Australian economy has seen recessions since, this set of numbers looks different to those in the past.

First, there's how steep the drop in gross domestic product was. In other downturns the retraction took place over months or years, not a 7 per cent drop in one quarter. Over the previous quarter the economy contracted by 0.3 per cent, meaning Australia experienced the two quarters of negative growth required to be in a technical recession.

"As you can see, it's a household consumption story," Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said on Wednesday, with the Bureau of Statistics showing the largest drop of household expenditure on record at 12.1 per cent.

Statistics don't just paint the story of hundreds of thousands of Australians losing their jobs. While hours worked dropped a record 9.8 per cent, the drop in wages was 2.5 per cent. It reflects the high number of Australians who were still connected to their employer, but forced to stay home and not work due to the restrictions.

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The national accounts also show what staying at home looks like. Discretionary spending crashed by 27.8 per cent, and transport by 85.9 per cent, over the quarter.

Spending at hotels, cafes and restaurants more than halved.

What did go up? Spending on alcohol, by 13 per cent. The rush for furniture for working from home and freezers for panic-bought food contributed to a 9.5 per cent jump in spending on furnishing and household equipment. And electricity and gas went up 4.8 per cent.

For those Australians who were lucky enough to keep working, they still weren't confident enough to spend. The household saving to income ratio rose from 6 per cent to 19.8 per cent.

Counterintuitively for a recession caused by a pandemic, spending on healthcare services recorded a steep drop of 7.9 per cent in the June quarter. Elective surgeries were cancelled, and people stayed away from doctors, hospitals and allied health services due to fears about catching the virus.