Showing posts with label Australian construction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Australian construction. Show all posts

Saturday, 23 August 2025

Queensland Report on Construction Productivity

 More recommendations and reform directions focused on regulation and planning

 


 

The Queensland Productivity Commission (QPC) released their interim report on Opportunities to Improve Productivity of the Construction Industry on 31st July. Construction productivity has recently been the subject of two other reports, with this one following the NSW Productivity and Equality Commission report Housing Supply Challenges and Policy Options in August 2024 and the Productivity Commission report Housing Construction Productivity: Can We Fix It? in February 2025. 

 

The motivating force behind the three reports is a political requirement to be seen to be doing something to address the housing crisis, which is fundamentally due to a mismatch between a long-term lack of supply of new dwellings and the high level of demand, driven by a combination of increased immigration and decreased household size. The result has been rising house prices, falling affordability, particularly for first home buyers, increased rents and very low vacancy rates. Another factor is the high level of engineering construction, due to the size and number of transport and energy projects, many of which are for the public sector. Queensland also has the effects of additional demand from the 2032 Olympic Games projects, currently estimated at $7 billion (which based on other Olympic Games will be much more).

 

The QPC report says ‘While many problems were identified, stakeholders were generally confident that better outcomes are possible. There is broad agreement amongst stakeholders, for many of the solutions identified, on how to address the problems facing the industry.’ Unfortunately, some 342 pages later, most of the problems discussed are about regulation and planning, onsite construction productivity barely gets a mention, there is no evidence stakeholders are in agreement on solutions and more information is requested for the recommendations, and how the problems will be addressed is not included because ‘Implementation issues, including prioritisation and sequencing, are not considered in this interim report but will be considered in the final report.’

 

This post starts with the QPC interim report’s terms of reference and Queensland construction productivity, then looks at the recommendations and reform directions in the report. Some of the report’s  key points on planning and approvals and regulation are covered, and other important industry issues and opportunities not addressed in the report are discussed. 

 

The Terms of Reference Were Extremely Broad

 

To understand how complex the issues surrounding  construction productivity are and why this report (and the others) are so unsatisfactory it is necessary to start with the terms of reference given to the QPC (heavily edited to key points) :

 

        Conditions in Queensland’s housing market, residential development, and non-residential construction, including housing supply and affordability;

        Key trends including input costs, prices, competition, and supply chain developments;

        Factors shaping Queensland’s productivity including legislation and regulation, industrial relations, procurement policies and labour force needs;

        Opportunities for improvement including regulatory and non-regulatory mechanisms;

        Priority areas for reform in the short, medium and long term (including labour, skills and competition, suitability and availability of qualified head contractors and sub-contractors etc.);

        Impact on small and medium scale subcontractors in regional areas and their ability to compete for government tenders due to regulatory requirements;

        Availability of labour, skills development, and matching supply with demand;

        How government procurement and contracting arrangements affect construction productivity, including Best Practice Industry Conditions (BPICs are wages and conditions on public projects introduced to encourage enlistment of workers);

        Barriers to entry, investment and innovation in the sector.

 

Including issues around government procurement and contracting allowed the QPC to address some important productivity determinants that were not in the other recent reports. However, the problem is the breadth of these terms of reference, and the loose or long-term relationship many of the others have with onsite construction productivity, which is what is being measured by the statistics. 

 

The QPC report, and the NSW and Productivity Commission reports that preceded it, are not really about construction productivity, which is being used as a stalking horse for the long-term lack of supply of new housing. These reports are more concerned with the complex, cumbersome and sclerotic planning and approvals process that deters, delays and prevents residential construction, and the effects of regulation and the building code.

 

Queensland Construction Productivity

 

The QPC found Queensland construction productivity is only 5 per cent higher than it was in 1994-95, compared to a 65 per cent increase in labour productivity in the market economy. As Figure 1 shows, the variation in aggregate productivity is explained by compositional changes due to the rapid growth and subsequent decline in heavy and civil engineering activity in the LNG investment boom.

 

Figure 1. Queensland productivity


 

This is also what a previous post on construction productivity in the states and territories found. In 2014 the Australian mining boom peaked with the value of work done reaching $80 billion in Queensland, mainly due to construction of three LNG plants. The pro-cyclical nature of construction productivity is clearly seen in Figure 2 as gross value added (GVA) per hour worked followed the fall in the volume of work, which declined by around 30 percent in Queensland [1].

 

Figure 2. Gross value added per hour worked and construction work done

Sources: ABS 5220, ABS 6150, ABS 8755.

 

The quotes below on the causes of slow productivity growth have been taken from the QPC report.

 

‘Although empirical evidence on the causes of slow productivity growth is incomplete, it suggests that regulation is likely to have played a key role’:

·      Evidence from the United States and New Zealand suggests restrictive land use regulation may have made it more difficult and expensive to construct housing and other buildings [2].

·      Research suggests there have been significant increases in the complexity of building regulation, which has increased overheads and construction costs.

·      Regulatory design, including regional variations, have created incentives that keep the industry fragmented and dominated by smaller firms, who are less likely to innovate and have lower productivity.

·      Where regulators have poor incentives or are underfunded, results in unnecessary delays, high administrative costs and poor oversight, which can undermine productivity.

 

‘Recent changes to the National Construction Code (NCC) have been adopted without a case being established that they would provide a net benefit to the community. Similarly, Queensland introduced its trust accounts framework without undertaking a regulatory impact assessment.’

 

‘While regulatory issues seem to be a key driver of poor performance over longer time periods, more recent productivity declines seem to have been materially impacted by policy choices relating to Queensland Government procurement.’ 

 

‘Insufficient attention has been given to how procurement practices or new projects are impacting the market. This has been exacerbated by poor project selection.’

 

‘Government procurement practices, particularly BPICs, have created unnecessary inefficiencies’

 

The Report’s Recommendations and Reform Directions

 

The preliminary recommendations are ‘specific reforms that the Commission is seeking feedback on.’ There are 21 recommendations, of which six are on planning and approvals, and four on the NCC and regulation. The recommendations are:  

 

·     Government procurement - recommendations 1, 2 and 3;

·     BPICs removal –  recommendation 4;

·     Planning and approvals – recommendations 5, 6 (infrastructure charges), 7, 8, 9, and 10;

·     Regulation –  recommendations 11 (NCC), 12 (building codes), 13 (minimum financial requirements), and 14 (trust accounts);

·     Modern methods of construction (MMC) – recommendation 15;

·     Worker health and safety – recommendations 16 and 17;

·     Workforce – recommendations 18 and 19 (occupational licensing), and 20 (mobility);

·     Utility connections - recommendation 21.

 

The reform directions are ‘areas where there is a clear case for action, but the Commission is seeking further information to support the development of specific recommendations.’ There are 12 reform directions, of which

 

·    Government selection and staging of infrastructure – reform direction 1;

·    The pre-qualification system – reform direction 2;

·    Re-setting industry practices and increasing competition – reform direction 3;

·    Tendering and contracting, including building information modelling (BIM) and collaborative contracts - reform direction 4;

·    Planning and zoning reform – reform direction5, 6 (community support);

·    Review of regulations – reform direction7 and 8 (QBCC);

·    Worker health and safety - reform direction 9;

·    Workforce - reform directions 10 (training), 11 (migration), 12 (labour hire).

 

There are also two requests for information, on the 2024 Energy Queensland Union Collective Agreement, and on foreign investor taxes and housing construction. 

 

If the aim really is to improve construction productivity, recommendations would be focused on improving project management, logistics and supply chain efficiency, increasing investment in machinery, equipment and software, contractual relations and the structure of the industry. While the recommendations on procurement are important, and with those on workforce development and industrial relations relevant to productivity, the majority of the QPC’s recommendations are on legislation, regulation, and the planning and approvals process. 

 

A comparison with the 2024 NSW Productivity and Equality Commission report Review of Housing Supply Challenges and Policy Options for NSW is useful. That report found barriers to housing supply included high construction and borrowing costs, capacity constraints in the construction sector, and bottlenecks in the development process, with over half of the 32 recommendations on planning. It recommended reforming planning to streamline the development process and reduce approval times, and reviewing planning policy because ‘prescriptive rules’ on land block innovation. Other recommendations included education and skills, business regulations and tax, improving infrastructure and transport, replacing stamp duty with a land tax, establishing an Urban Development Program to report on the housing market and a housing supply council to advise on housing targets, and incentives for local government to meet targets. It argued for non-regulatory approaches wherever possible, and avoiding excessive regulation. While there are many overlapping recommendations, this is a more ambitious agenda than the one envisaged by the QPC. 

 

The structure of the QPC Interim  Report echoes the Productivity Commission’s February report, which had five issues and seven reform directions. The PC’s issues were: the complex and slow approvals process; fragmentation due to regulation; the lack of innovation; the regulatory burden; and workforce issues. The reform directions were: coordinated and transparent planning approvals and appropriately funded regulators; review building regulations and the NCC’s objectives; implement ratings systems on new and existing building quality; increase diffusion of technology; public research and development funding; reduce regulatory impediments to MCC; and improve workforce mobility and flexibility. The PC suggested states should consider establishing coordination bodies to speed up the process and address delays such as the Queensland State Assessment and Referral Agency, which got two mentions but no discussion in the QPC report [3]. 

 

The Planner Productivity Problem

 

Over 45 pages the QPC details regulation of land use that ‘can be complex, restrictive, inconsistent across local governments, inconsistent between regulatory instruments and impose costly and unnecessary requirements’, a planning system that ‘is complex, difficult to navigate, inefficient and lacks transparency and accountability’, and approvals processes that ‘create uncertainty, have high transaction costs, require expensive or unnecessary modifications to building design or cause excessive delays.’ 

 

The QPC recommends an alternative development pathway for significant developments [4], amending the Planning Regulation, and reviewing the Building and Planning Acts. The Government should ‘investigate digital planning and permitting technologies to improve the efficiency, accuracy and transparency of the approval process.’ To ‘build community support for housing development’ the QPC suggests improved consultation, citizen panels, independent hearing panels, and negotiable conditions. To improve zoning financial incentives for local government might be used. 

 

It is universally recognised that the time and cost of development approvals is a problem, but that is an issue of planner productivity not construction productivity. Research from YIMBY Melbourne found ‘In 1986, for every practicing planner, Australia built around 54 homes. Now, we build fewer than nine homes per planner. A planner 40 years ago was on average responsible for the development of six times the number of homes per year than a planner working today.’ 

 

Figure 3. Planner productivity

Source: There is no planner supply shortage, YIMBY Melbourne Research Note. 

 

The Research Note concluded ‘The demand for planners has mainly increased not through an increase in construction output and project delivery, but through an increase in regulatory process and complexity.’ This is QPC’s reform direction 4, and addresses 

the problem that development projects such as new housing estates and apartment complexes can take ten years or more to complete, with most of the time spent getting approvals. 

 

Regulation and the NCC

 

The QPC says ‘evidence suggests that several regulations affecting the construction industry are not effective or efficient, and are likely to be reducing productivity. Building regulations are becoming more complex with increased risk they are impeding productivity. Reduced levels of attention are being paid to the costs of new regulation, with regulatory best practice not being followed.’

 

Figure 4. The Queensland building regulation system

 


 

The outcome is the QPC’s view that recent changes to NCC 2022 for liveable housing and energy efficiency have increased construction costs, and ‘regulatory impact analysis undertaken showed these benefits were unlikely to justify the costs they impose.’ The recommendation is for Queensland to opt out of NCC 2022 and ‘only adopt future NCC changes in Queensland codes where these have been through robust regulatory impact analysis to demonstrate they provide net benefits to the community.’ 

Under Reform direction 8 ‘consideration should be given to whether the regulatory framework underpinning the QBCC provides the right incentives for ongoing

improvements to regulatory performance.’

 

Modern Methods of Construction and BIM

 

There is a short chapter in the interim report on MMC, included in the section on regulation. The QPC argues there is no market failure and no reason for government intervention to promote MMC. The report makes some general observations about regulatory barriers to MMC, none of which are new, and did not endorse MMC as an alternative to conventional building. There is no discussion on the cyclical boom-bust nature of residential building, which makes industrialisation of modular and prefabricated housing difficult, the reluctance of most banks to finance modular and prefabricated houses, and the lack of standards or an industry quality assurance accreditation system for modular and prefabricated buildings. 

 

The QPC acknowledges the existence of the MMC program that QBuild and the Office of the Queensland Government Architect have, which is a partnership with 12 industry suppliers to supply housing in regional and remote areas. In 2023 QBuild established a training and production facility at Eagle Farm in Brisbane, and two more production facilities have since opened in Zillmere in north Brisbane, and Cairns in Far North Queensland. 

 

Although QBuild has the best developed MMC program in Australia that has produced over 500 houses, the QPC does not discuss or make any recommendation on the program. The QPC did not use the opportunity to report data from QBuild on MMC productivity, costs and time performance, or provide feedback from occupants on the build quality and  liveability of their houses, or from users of modular or prefabricated public buildings like schools and hospitals. 

 

Another oversight is the lack of discussion on the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) or other digital tools like design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA). These are making offsite manufacturing of building modules and components more efficient and have been used for over a decade. At the end of the section on Contracting for Efficiency the QPC asks for information on ‘the key barriers to increased adoption of digital technologies, such as BIM, and the policies or practices that would allow the opportunities for digital technologies to be fully leveraged.’

 

Queensland has had a BIM mandate for public projects over $50 million since 2019, however the QPC does not think this worth mentioning or, worse, investigating. This was another missed opportunity to assess the costs and benefits of their BIM mandate, and the failure to recommend its retention and/or extension a mystery. Also, the BIM mandate is under the Queensland Department of State Development and Infrastructure, which has a 2024 Infrastructure and Workforce Productivity Plan with details on current and planned initiatives, The QPC does not refer to this plan or its effectiveness [5]. 

 

Industry Issues

 

There are other important industry issues not discussed, starting with construction costs and the volatility of the building cycle. Improving productivity through better project management and reform of the VET system are also overlooked. There is no discussion of digitisation and automation, digital tools and platforms, AI enhanced systems, and automated planning and code compliance checks. Also, industry contractual relationships and risk allocation are not considered. Subcontracting is flexible and a method to manage costs and risk, but direct employment has a smaller span of control and is more efficient. 

 

Although there is extensive coverage of building regulation and the NCC, the QPC does not discuss building defects and the lack of implementation of the 2018 report Building Confidence: Improving the Effectiveness of Compliance and Enforcement Systems for the Building and Construction Industry Across Australia recommendations on mandatory inspections and fire safety. Nor is the problem of flammable cladding in Queensland in the report, where from 2019 to 2023 there was a Safer Buildings Taskforce to advise the government on policies and actions and how to rectify combustible cladding. In August 2025 three public buildings still needed rectification and some unknown number have been rectified and removed from the online list on The Department of Housing and Public Works page, which says: ‘As of 31 May 2024:

·       976 private buildings require a solution to address cladding risk;

·       308 are potentially at risk and need to complete the checklist process;

·       345 have notified of removal or rectification.

 

Although the terms of reference were to look at other jurisdictions, there is no discussion of the NSW iCIRTsystem, developed by ratings agency Equifax, for assessing contractor and consultant capability and performance, despite clear evidence of the effectiveness of the system in NSW in improving building quality and addressing the problems of building defects and phoenixing by developers and contractors. Discussion of the 10 year latent defects insurance scheme that has started in NSW is also missing. 

 

Conclusion

 

The QPC has focused on regulation and planning as the main issues, but these are just two of the factors that affect onsite productivity, and arguably skills, technology and project management are more important. Also, while no-one disputes the importance of issues like costs, prices, competition, the supply chain, labour, skills, occupational licensing, procurement and contracting, these have been discussed and dissected over and over again. The QPC makes no new contribution to these issues.

 

The QPC’s 21 recommendations and seven reform directions are in four key areas. The first is improving government procurement policies, where well-known ideas on collaborative contracting, and selecting, sequencing, and sizing of public projects are recycled. These would all make the Queensland Government a better client and would probably increase productivity on public projects, but that can only have a small effect on the overall level of construction productivity in the state because most of the work done is for the private sector. The Queensland Government (and the other Australian Governments) have received these recommendations many times over the years. 

 

The second key area is improving land use regulations, including approvals and zoning, which are a third of the recommendations. The QPC does not directly address the reality that local government opposes new housing, although it does recommend an alternative development pathway for significant developments and reviewing the Building and Planning Acts. The issue here is planner productivity, which has fallen as regulatory complexity has increased, not construction productivity. Planning and zoning decisions have no effect on supply side issues such as the cost of construction materials and mortgage finance for new housing, providing the infrastructure needed for new developments, and the rate of conversion of approvals into commencements by developers.

 

The third key area is the regulation of building activity. The QPC recommends opting out of the 2022 NCC updates on building accessibility and thermal performance because of their cost effects, reviewing the regulatory framework and performance of the QBCC, and pausing rollout of trust accounts while investigating their costs and benefits. The QPC argues no government support for MMC is required, but regulatory barriers should be addressed. 

 

The fourth key area is improving labour market operation, mainly through reform of apprenticeship and training pathways, occupational licencing, skilled overseas migration, labour hire licensing, and allowing recognition of qualifications from interstate. These issues were recognised and had similar recommendations in the NSW and Productivity Commission reports. 

 

What the QPC report shows is that construction productivity in general, and residential productivity in particular, is being used as a stalking horse for the lack of supply of new housing. As in the previous reports from the NSW Productivity and Equality Commission and the Productivity Commission, the main focus is on a sclerotic planning and approvals process that delays and often prevents new housing. The real issue there is local government opposition to new housing and planner productivity, not construction productivity. 

 

Houses are larger and apartments smaller than a few decades ago, but how they are procured and built, and what they are made of, has not substantially changed in decades. Fundamentally, that is also why the level of productivity has not changed. While there are more electrical appliances and offsite manufacturing of trusses, windows, doors and cabinetry, the building structure and services like electricity, water and plumbing in a 1960s dwelling are those found in a new build today.

 

Construction in general and housing in particular has a well-established system of production that is efficient and flexible. It will only change if and when there is a clearly superior method of delivery that is also profitable. Tinkering with regulations, the NCC, planning and approvals processes, and occupational licensing might make a difference at the margin, but will not deliver the big improvement in productivity that is required. For that a commitment to increased digitisation and automation is necessary, with government policies, procurement and finance aligned. 

 

There are some glaring omissions in the report. The QBuild MMC has produced over 500 houses, but the QPC does not discuss or make any recommendation on the program. Queensland has had a BIM mandate for public projects over $50 million since 2019, however the QPC does not think this worth mentioning or, worse, investigating. There is almost no discussion on the use of BIM or other digital tools like design for manufacture and assembly. Construction costs and the volatility of the building cycle, improving productivity through better project management and reform of the VET system are also overlooked. Although there is extensive coverage of building regulation and the NCC, the QPC does not discuss building defects and the lack of implementation of the 2018 Building Confidence report. 

 

The productivity issues in the QPC report are not new and can be found in many other reports on the industry, although there are some that are specific to Queensland. The interim report’s recommendations are limited and most would be little more than modifications to the current system. While those may be worthwhile, because the current system can clearly be improved, there is no suggestion that a more radical approach might be needed or taken.

 

                                                            *

 

[1] The effect of the mining boom was the subject of a 2023 post on The Long Cycle in Australian Construction Productivity using GVA per person employed.

 

[2] The US research was discussed in an October 2024 post Recent Research on Construction Productivity.

 

[3] Discussed in the post Housing Productivity Report a Missed Opportunity on the  Productivity Commission’s report Housing Construction Productivity: Can We Fix It

 

[4] The QPC does not refer to the NSW Housing Development Authority, established in January 2025 to approve State Significant Developments and rezonings. By August it had approved 187 projects with over 70,000 dwellings. NSW has introduced a Pattern Book of six low and mid-rise housing designs with a 10 day approval pathway. Also in August, Victoria introduced a Single Home Code for deemed-to-satisfy houses that need no further approvals. This follows the Townhouse and Low-Rise Code introduced earlier in 2025.

 

[5] A 2021post was on BIM Mandates and  Construction Industry Policy



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Sunday, 13 July 2025

Insights from New Data on Australian Construction

Construction Industry Survey 2024


 

The ABS has published detailed data on the Construction industry for 2023-24. Although released as part of the Australian Industry data, this is the seventh of a series of irregular and infrequent Construction Industry Surveys done by the ABS [1]. The ABS collected employment, wages and salaries, income, expenses, operating profit, earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), and industry value added (IVA) for private sector construction businesses. 

 

Construction is an industry division, divided into three subdivisions: 

·      Subdivision 30 Building construction, with the two groups of Residential and Non-residential building;

·      Subdivision 31 Heavy and civil engineering construction; and

·      Subdivision 32 Construction services with five groups of Land development and site preparation services, Building structure services, Building installation services, Building completion services, and Other construction services.

 

The survey divides income by: 

·      Type of client;

·      Nature of contract (contracting, subcontracting or speculative);

·      Type of asset (houses, other residential building, non-residential building, road and bridge construction, and other non-building construction); and

·      Type of work (new construction work, alterations, additions, renovations and improvements, and repairs and maintenance).

 

This post first looks at industry totals and the Construction subdivisions and groups, and details income and expenses. It then compares the amount per employee for income, wages and salaries, EBITDA and IVA across the subdivisions and groups to show their relative performance. The data on capital expenditure, work done by type of asset and type of work is presented. 

 

Australia is in the fortunate position of having one of the world’s best statistical agencies with the ABS, at a time when other countries are having issues with their data collections [2].

 

 

 Industry Totals

 

Total employment was 1,291,000 people, of which Construction services were 883,000 or 68%. Within Construction services, the largest groups were Building installation services (329,000 people) and Building completion services (223,000 people). Building construction employed 254,000 with 173,00 in Residential building, and Heavy and civil engineering construction employed 154,000. 

 

Total income includes income from non-construction services and sales of land and goods, but the survey also has income from contracting and subcontracting. Construction total income was $633.6 billion with $438.6bn from contracting and subcontracting (69%), with $77bn of contracting income from the public sector (17.5%). For the three subdivisions:

·      Building construction’s total income was $235.2bn, with $130.8bn from contracting and $21.5bn from subcontracting, contributing $152.3bn. 

·      Heavy and civil engineering construction’s total income was $122.4bn with $85bn from contracting, of which $47.2bn (55.5%) was for the public sector, and $13.2 from subcontracting, contributing $98.2bn. 

·      Construction services’ total income was $276.1bn, with $116.6bn from subcontracting and $71.4bn from contracting, contributing $188bn. 

·      Within Construction services, Building installation services was the largest group by income ($94.2bn), followed by Building completion services ($53.2bn), which together were 53% of Construction services income. 

 

 

Table 1. Construction totals 


Source: ABS 8155DO008. 

Note: W & S is Wages and salaries, Total income includes income from non-construction services and sale of land and goods, Profit is Operating profit before tax, EBITDA is Earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation, IVA is Industry value added. 

 

Figure 1. Contracting income by client type

 


 

Non-construction income was 31% of total income, with $113.2bn from the sale of goods and $61.2bn from services. Income from sales of land and goods was a high proportion of contracting and subcontracting income for Residential building (67%) and Land development and site preparation services (53%). Income from Non-construction services (including professional, scientific and technical services) was a high proportion of contracting and subcontracting income for Heavy and civil engineering (14%), for Land development and site preparation services (43%), and for Building installation services (18%). 

 

Figure 2. Non-construction income by source

 


 

Expenses were $570.7bn in 2023-24. The largest were purchases of goods and materials ($255.4b) and selected labour costs ($105.7b). Payments to other businesses for construction services, building and industrial cleaning services was $91.6b, and this will have included Professional services like architectural, engineering and surveying services, and rental and hire of machinery and equipment .

 

Purchases of land for property development was $12.2 bn, with Residential building accounting for $7bn and Land development and site preparation $3bn of the total. Those purchases incurred $2.1bn and $1.3bn in interest costs for the groups, which also had $762mn and $1.4bn in depreciation and amortisation expenses. 


 

Performance Per Employee

 

Comparing the amount per employee for income, wages and salaries, EBITDA and IVA highlights the differences between the industry subdivisions and groups. The Non-residential building and Heavy and civil engineering construction subdivisions had much higher average wages and salaries and income than the rest of the industry, and the highest IVA per employee. The highest operating profit per employee and EBITDA was in Land development and site preparation, which was also the group with the highest income from non-construction services, and Building installation services had the lowest operating profit per employee and EBITDA.

 

Table 2. Amount per employee


Source: ABS 8155DO008. 

Note: W & S is Wages and salaries, Total income includes income from non-construction services and sale of land and goods, Profit is Operating profit before tax, EBITDA is Earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation, IVA is Industry value added. 

 

The figures below show the differences between the groups for wages, profits, EBITDA and IVA per employee. The general pattern is that Construction services have lower values than Building and Engineering, often around half as much, particularly for wages and contracting income. Average wages are notably low for Residential building and Building completion services. Contracting income per employee is highest in Non-residential building, by a considerable margin over Residential building and Engineering, and the three groups of Building installation, Building completion and Other construction services have almost the same contracting income per employee.

 

Figure 3. Wages and salaries per employee

 


 

Figure 4. Income per employee

 


Note: Includes contracting and subcontracting income, excludes non-construction income from sales of land and goods.

 

For EBITDA and IVA where non-construction services income is included, Land development and site preparation had the highest EBITDA and third highest IVA per employee. Residential building had lower IVA per employee but higher EBITDA than both Non-residential building and Engineering, which were the two groups with the highest IVA per employee. Interestingly, there is only a weak relationship between EBITDA and IVA per employee across the industry groups. 

 

Figure 5. EBITDA per employee


 

Note: EBITDA is Earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation.

 

The four Construction services groups of Building structure services, Building installation services, Building completion services and Other construction services have IVA per employee values around half that of Engineering, and around two thirds of Building. 

 

Figure 6. IVA per employee

 


Note: IVA is Industry value added.


 

Capital Formation

 

There is a well-established relationship between the amount of capital (both physical and intellectual) available for each worker and their level of productivity. All else equal, the more capital the higher the productivity. The survey has capital expenditure (capex) and gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) for the eight industry groups, and Figure 5 shows  the relationship between IVA per employee, capex and GFCF per employee.

 

Land development and site preparation had the highest level for both capex and GFCF per employee indicators, due to including purchases of land and equipment. Similarly, Engineering has a high capex that includes purchases of machinery and equipment, and also the highest IVA per employee. Capex is low for Residential and Non-residential building  because of the low level of ownership of heavy equipment and machinery due to extensive use of hiring and leasing, however that equipment and machinery lifts the level of IVA per employee. The other four trades in Construction services have capex and GFCF tracking IVA per employee, and are the best example of the relationship between capital and productivity.

 

Figure 7. IVA, capex and GFCF per employee in 2023-24. 

 


Note: Capex is capital expenditure and GFCF  is gross fixed capital formation.


 

Work Done by Type of Asset and Type of Work

 

Building Construction and Construction Services Income

 

There is a new set of data in this year’s survey that has the income from different types of asset built, divided into houses, other residential building and non-residential building, and the type of work done, divided into new construction work, alterations, additions, renovations and improvements, and repairs and maintenance. This is given for the three Building groups of Residential and Non-residential building and Construction services. 

 

Table 3. Income from construction services by type of work

 


 

Residential projects provided the largest source of income for Construction services, with $55.6bn from House construction and $17bn from Other residential building, a total of $72.6bn, compared to Construction services’ Non-residential building income of $66.2bn and Non-building construction’s $49.3bn. For the Non-residential building group, Alterations etc. income of $18bn was 58% of income from New work of $31bn.


 

Table 4. Type of work done by Building construction and Construction services

 


 

The distribution of income across type of work and type of asset can be found from this data. This has not previously been available and it allows a comparison of the relative importance of type of building work done. New work is 72% of the total, but of particular interest is that 9% is repair and maintenance, which is generally inefficient and labour intensive compared to new work. Around three quarters of R&M is (unsurprisingly) done by trades in Construction services and, except for Non-residential building, most of the alterations and additions.

 

Engineering Construction Income

 

Heavy and civil engineering construction total income was $98.2bn, of which $85.1bn was from contracting. Income was broken down by project type and into New work and Improvements and Repairs and maintenance (R&M): 

·       Road and bridge construction ($37.5bn; New work $34.5bn, R&M $2.6bn );

·       Railways, tramways and harbour construction ($17.3bn; New work $17bn);

·       Water storage and supply, sewerage and drainage construction ($7.2bn; New work $6.1bn, R&M $1.1bn);

·       Electricity generation, transmission and distribution construction ($11.5bn; New work $11.1bn);

·       Telecommunications construction ($1.2bn; New work $$567mn, R&M $595mn);

·       Oil, gas, coal, pipelines (not water) and other heavy industry construction ($9.4bn; New work $7.2bn, R&M $2.2bn);

·       Other non-building construction ($8.2bn; New work $7.6bn);

·       Building construction ($5.1bn; New work $5.5bn, Alterations & additions plus R&M $593mn). 

 

Roads and railways are by far the largest categories of new engineering work ($37.5bn and $17.3bn respectively), and it should be noted that 2023-24 was a year with exceptionally high public expenditure on infrastructure, with major projects underway in NSW, Victoria and Queensland. The third highest category was Electricity generation, transmission and distribution construction, reflecting expenditure on the energy transition with $11.1bn of new work. Repair and maintenance was 8.3% of total Engineering income. 

 

 

Key Points

 

Total income included income from non-construction services and sales of land and goods as well as income from contracting and subcontracting. Construction total income was $633.6 billion with$438.6bn or 69% from contracting and subcontracting. Contracting income from the public sector was $77bn. Sales of land and goods was a high proportion of contracting and subcontracting income for Residential building (67%) and Land development and site preparation services (53%).

 

Construction services have lower wages, profits, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) and industry value added (IVA) per employee values than the Building and Engineering groups, particularly for wages and contracting income. Contracting income per employee is highest in Non-residential building, much more than Residential building and Engineering, and the three groups of Building installation, Building completion and Other construction services have almost the same contracting income per employee. 

 

When non-construction services income is included, Land development and site preparation had the highest EBITDA and third highest IVA per employee. Residential building had lower IVA per employee but higher EBITDA than both Non-residential building and Engineering, which were the two groups with the highest IVA per employee. There is only a weak relationship between EBITDA and IVA per employee across the industry groups. The four Construction services groups of Building structure services, Building installation services, Building completion services and Other construction services have IVA per employee values around half that of Engineering, and around two thirds of Building. 

 

The survey has capital expenditure and gross fixed capital formation (GFCF). Land development and site preparation had the highest and Engineering the second highest for capex and GFCF per employee, due to purchases of land and equipment. Capex is low for Residential and Non-residential building  because of hiring and leasing of heavy equipment and machinery. The other four trades in Construction services have capex and GFCF closely tracking IVA per employee, a good example of the relationship between physical capital and productivity.

 

Data on the distribution of income across type of work and type of asset has not previously been available. For Building construction New work is 72% of the total, alteration, additions and improvements 19%, and repair and maintenance is 9%, with around three quarters of R&M done by trades in Construction services. However, the data does not include the number of people employed in R&M. 

 

For Heavy and civil engineering, total income was $98.2bn, of which $85.1bn was from contracting. Roads and railways are by far the largest categories of new work ($37.5bn and $17.3bn respectively). 2023-24 was a year with high public expenditure on infrastructure and 55.5% of income came from the public sector. Repair and maintenance was 8.3% of total Engineering income. 

 

The 2023-24 Construction Industry Survey has provided a level of detail previously unavailable. Key insights are that 69% of total income is from contracting and subcontracting, with the rest from provision of services and sale of land and goods, and 9% of income is from repair and maintenance. Although only 18% of total contracting income is from the public sector, for Engineering it is 56%. Purchases of land by Residential building was $7bn and by Land development and site preparation $3bn, with $2.1bn and $1.3bn in interest costs respectively. In Non-residential building work, Alterations, additions, renovations and improvements income of $21.2bn was 41.2% of the income from New work of $51.3bn. For House construction by Construction services, income from New work was $30.6bn, and for Alterations etc. was $17.6bn, 57% of New work income. 

 

Non-residential building and Engineering had the highest IVA per employee, followed by Land development and site preparation and Residential building. There is a wide productivity differential across the industry groups, as measured by IVA per employee. That may be an imprecise measure, but it is indicative of the labour intensity of the trades, and the higher capital intensity of the Building and Engineering subdivisions. One way to improve overall industry productivity would be through lifting the capital intensity of Construction services by providing incentives for them to increase capex. 

 


Conclusion

 

The ABS 2023-24 Australian Industry data included a survey of the Construction industry, with previously unavailable data on income from work done and type of work, clients and other variables at the level of eight industry groups. Therefore, this data has much more detail compared to the three industry subdivisions of Building, Engineering and Construction services used in regular ABS publications, because subdivisions are made up of industry groups.  

 

The first three groups are Residential building, Non-residential building and Heavy and civil engineering, and there are five groups of Construction services: Land development and site preparation services, Building structure services, Building installation services, Building completion services, and Other construction services.

 

In terms of policy and industry development, this detailed data is important because it clearly shows the differences in the characteristics of the industry groups, their clients and sources of income. It will also allow recalculation of construction labour productivity for the different types of work done. 

 

Construction is better viewed as three sub-industries when the differences between Residential building, Non-residential building and Engineering construction are taken into account. These structural differences affect the way clients, contractors, subcontractors, designers and suppliers work and interact, and these ABS subdivisions have their own characteristics and ways of working. For example, house builders have pattern books, commercial building uses architects, and infrastructure is designed by engineers.

 

Industry policies that target Construction will be challenged by sub-industries with limited, though important, similarities, and are unlikely to be relevant across them. The specific nature of the individual subdivisions often makes recommendations and policy directed at Construction as a single industry hard to implement or ineffective, separate policies are required. 


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[1] ABS 8155DO008 Australian Industry 2023-24, ABS 8155DO001 Construction Industry Survey 2011-12. ABS 8772  Private Sector Construction Establishments 2002-03, 1996-97,1988-89,1984-85 and 1978-79. 

The 2002-03 survey used different industry categories and is not comparable with the other surveys. The ABS notes that survey data ‘were understated in the 1978/79 collection as there were significant coverage deficiencies in this survey.’

 

[2] In the US the Bureau of Labor Statistics issued a notice in June 2025 that said CPI collection reduction and suspension affected the Commodity and Services survey and the Housing survey. The ‘BLS makes reductions when current resources can no longer support the collection effort.’  

 

The UK Office of National Statistics published a wrong CPI figure in April 2025 and 

Systemic Review of ONS Economic Statistics noted  ‘there are widely recognised problems with the Labour Force Survey’ and  ‘resource pressures on economic statistics and on the ONS as a whole have intensified in the last two years.’ In 2014 issues with UK construction data were so serious they led to Construction Output being de-designated as a National Statistic.