The Australian Bureau of Statistics publication Australian Industry (ABS 8155) uses a wide
sample of private sector firms and non-profit organizations to get financial
data on balance sheet items. This is the modern approach to national
statistics, accessing and organizing data from a range of sources, mostly
digital. As explained by the ABS:
This
publication presents estimates of the economic and financial performance of
Australian industry in 2015-16. The estimates are produced annually using a
combination of directly collected data from the annual Economic Activity Survey,
conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and Business Activity
Statement data provided by businesses to the Australian Taxation Office.
Australian
Industry provides a useful data set to compare
industries with, and to compare sectors (called divisions and subdivisions)
within industries. The data excludes the public sector but includes non-profits
in industries like health and education, which are combined with private sector
businesses to get a total for the non-government part of the economy.
Figure 1 shows the Total All Selected Industries and the
Construction industry’s share for three of the data series produced:
employment; wages and salaries; and industry value added, a measure of output.
In 2015-16 Construction employed 1.04 million people, 9.7 per cent of the
total, paid 11.3 per cent of total wages and salaries, and contributed 10 8 per
cent to the output of the non-government sector.
Figure 1. Construction Share of Industry Output and
Employment
The building and construction work done and output
statistics capture the on-site activities of contractors and subcontractors.
The construction industry, however, has an important role linking suppliers of
materials, machinery, products, services and other inputs to the public and
private clients on the demand side. These two views have been called broad and
narrow, with the narrow industry defined as on-site work and the broad industry
as the supply chain of materials, products and assemblies, and professional
services. Production of the built environment, how it is created and maintained
through project initiation, design, fabrication and construction to operation,
repair and maintenance, requires a deep and dense network of firms. With the property and real estate industries on the demand side, these
firms make up the built environment sector.
Employment and value added data from Australian Industry 2015-16 is provided
at three levels, for industries, divisions and subdivisions. Construction data
is at the two digit division level, but data on Manufacturing and Professional
and technical services is given at the three digit sub-division level. This
allows the contribution to the built environment sector of relevant parts of
those industries to be identified. After combining the on-site work done by
contractors and sub-contractors with manufacturing, property and real estate
services, professional services and quarrying, the built environment sector
accounts for 16.4 per cent of total employment and 21 per cent of output,
measured as industry value added, of the Australian non-government sector.
The idea that the construction industry, as measured in
the national accounts, is only one part of the creation and maintenance of the
built environment recognizes the industry’s extensive linkages with other sectors. Through those
linkages the impact of construction activities on other parts of the economy is
much greater than their direct contribution.
The on-site work done by contractors and subcontractors
is only around half the total economic contribution of the built environment
sector when downstream suppliers and the property and real estate industries on
the demand side are added.
Table 1. Australian Built Environment Sector
|
2015-16
|
Employment
|
Value Added
|
Employment
|
Value Added
|
|
Industry
|
Number
|
$mn
|
Number
|
$mn
|
|
30 Building construction
|
206,000
|
27,319
|
||
|
31 Heavy and civil engineering construction
|
121,000
|
21,156
|
||
|
32 Construction services
|
713,000
|
68,222
|
||
|
Total construction
|
1,040,000
|
116,697
|
1,040,000
|
116,697
|
|
6921 Architectural services
|
40,153
|
3,942
|
||
|
6922 Surveying and mapping services
|
15,853
|
1,872
|
||
|
6923 Engineering design and engineering
consulting
|
132,498
|
17,889
|
||
|
6924 Other specialised design services
|
30,479
|
2,384
|
||
|
Total professional, scientific and technical
services
|
218,983
|
26,087
|
218,983
|
26,087
|
|
|
|
|||
|
1331 Textile floor covering manufacturing
|
1,470
|
205
|
||
|
1491 Prefabricated wooden building manufacturing
|
753
|
77
|
||
|
1492 Wooden structural fittings and components
|
23,752
|
2,160
|
||
|
1493 Veneer and plywood manufacturing
|
825
|
88
|
||
|
1916 Paint and coatings manufacturing
|
6,853
|
1,103
|
||
|
2010 Glass and glass product manufacturing
|
9,085
|
1,358
|
||
|
2021 Clay brick manufacturing
|
1,999
|
433
|
||
|
2029 Other ceramic product manufacturing
|
1,944
|
175
|
||
|
2031 Cement and lime manufacturing
|
3,229
|
1,191
|
||
|
2032 Plaster product manufacturing
|
1,548
|
290
|
||
|
2033 Ready-mixed concrete manufacturing
|
8,359
|
1,311
|
||
|
2034 Concrete product manufacturing
|
7,388
|
793
|
||
|
2221 Structural steel fabricating
|
18,676
|
1,761
|
||
|
2222 Prefabricated metal building manufacturing
|
5,384
|
626
|
||
|
2223 Architectural aluminium product
manufacturing
|
15,938
|
1,486
|
||
|
2224 Metal roof and guttering manufacturing
|
3,631
|
362
|
||
|
2229 Other structural metal product manufacturing
|
8,580
|
814
|
||
|
2452 Space heating, cooling and ventilation
equipment
|
5,135
|
645
|
||
|
2462 Mining and construction machinery
manufacturing
|
8,195
|
1,008
|
||
|
Total manufacturing
|
132,744
|
15,886
|
132,744
|
15,886
|
|
67 Property operators and real estate services
|
345,000
|
66,382
|
345,000
|
66,382
|
|
09 Non-metallic mineral mining and quarrying
|
12,000
|
2,476
|
12,000
|
2,476
|
|
Total Australian built environment sector
|
1,748,727
|
227,528
|
||
|
Per cent of all industries
|
16.4
|
21.0
|
||
|
Total all industries
|
10,678,000
|
1,083,865
|
Source: Australian
Industry ABS 8155.
